High school students across the country entered Advanced Placement (AP) testing centers last week, in several cases, with what officials would describe as “unnecessary levels of drama.”
Administrators say one AP student released roughly 300 cockroaches into a testing room Tuesday morning in an attempt to delay the exam.
“It started with one scream near the back row,” an AP proctor said. “Then suddenly there were cockroaches on the desks, on the floor and somehow one was inside a student’s hoodie. I have been teaching for 19 years and I have never had to pause an exam because an insect climbed onto a TI-84.”
School officials confirmed the student had reportedly ordered the cockroaches online two weeks earlier under a fake business name.
“I studied for maybe 20 minutes total,” an AP student said. “The cockroaches were honestly saving me.”
In a separate incident, another AP student attempted to hide a phone inside a hollowed out section of her shoe. According to the students present, the plan failed after the student stomped her foot too aggressively while adjusting her seating position, activating Siri at full volume midway through the multiple choice section.
“The room went silent,” a junior said. “You could literally hear a pin drop.”
Meanwhile, officials are investigating an AP language exam incident involving a student who reportedly brought their own speaker instead and hid it in their sweatshirt.
“The instructions specifically said all audio equipment would be provided by the testing site,” a proctor said. “Suddenly, a completely different recording started playing in the back of the room.”
Students say the speaker began blasting what appeared to be an audio downloaded from YouTube, helping the student with the exam.
The student allegedly attempted to fix the situation by yelling, “Wait, wait, that was the 2023 version,” before disconnecting the speaker entirely and somehow making the situation worse.
The College Board made a statement on Wednesday, condemning cheating attempts while acknowledging the unusual increase in creativity.
“Students are encouraged to prepare through studying, time management and practice exams,” the statement read. “They are discouraged from introducing external insects, electronics or unauthorized sound systems into testing environments.”
Education experts say increasingly elaborate cheating schemes reflect the intense pressure surrounding AP exams and college admissions.
“I miss when kids just wrote formulas on their arms,” a school administrator said. “That felt manageable.”
