Streamlining the testing process, Souderton switched the 2023-2024 Keystone Exam testing from paper to fully online.
The change this year was notable, according to many staff and students.
Sophomore Giselle Santos believes that the testing this year was much easier for her.
“I feel like the online ones were a lot quicker and I felt less stressed with them because I could check how many problems were left,” Santos said.
Assistant principal Bill Coddington likes the online testing format and thinks it is a positive change. Coddington oversees the building’s Keystone testing.
“ [Keystones are] pretty cumbersome,” Coddington said, “and a little outdated. [Other schools] are all moving to online, and eventually the state will stop even offering the paper Keystone.”
In general, many students are not a fan of Keystone testing. Sophomore Carol Descher gets overwhelmed during the Keystone period of the semester.
“[The Keystones] are too stressful. I don’t feel like I do as well on standardized testing,” Descher said.
Many students also think the testing is slow.
“I absolutely don’t like testing. I think it’s just too long,” Santos said.
This change in the Keystones was also made to speed up the process of test-taking for the students.
“[It sped up] a lot because I usually take tests fast but I took this one really fast and I was done before a lot of other people,” sophomore Sophie Kisela said.
According to Kisela, online Keystones not only made testing quicker but it was also more efficient for answering questions.
“[Online testing] just makes it easier to look at it and it doesn’t hurt your hands when you’re writing,” said Kisela.
Sophomore Janvi Patel agrees that the online Keystones are much easier than paper Keystones.
“I prefer online because of the open-ended responses. It’s a lot easier to type and you can finish faster,” Patel said.
According to Patel, her nerves for the test were not as high as she expected them to be. “It didn’t really make me more nervous. I kind of was the same. Unfortunately, [the scores] might be relatively different,” Patel said.
Other students like Descher were more nervous for the test to be online.
“I just don’t like it online. It’s nerve-wracking to me when a teacher says we’re going to take the quiz online instead of on paper,” Descher said.
According to Coddington, he usually receives Keystone feedback but this year it was less than usual.
“I’m going to go with getting no feedback was good news. There were no real complaints. It kind of just came and went,” Coddington said.