2021-10-31
The 2021 Advanced Placement (AP) exams were administered in a hybrid format, with options to take the exams online or in-person. Having attended school virtually for nearly the entire year, I opted for the online exams. To take the exams, students had to download a special testing application. Like many other digital testing tools, the application attempts to 'lock' students into the test and restrict access to the rest of the system. There was just one major problem: there was no Linux version of the app. I tried Wine and some other tools, but didn't have much success. (It was also built with Electron, which made my compatibility issues ironic.) It seemed as though I would have to resort to using a virtual machine and hope there wasn't any virtualization detection. A successful few test runs later and I was all set.
Still, something felt...unsatisfying.
High school was nearly over. We had none of the big, memorable moments. No laid back, sociable senior year (unless you consider Discord usage a substitute for human interaction). Sure, we'd be going to college soon, but it still felt disappointing—like there was something we lost that we couldn't get back. Now, here I was in Spring 2021, struggling to take my last exams of high school on a virtual machine. I didn't want my final hours of high school end on such a low note.
An idea sprung to mind when I looked down at my desk.
Hacking/modding communities exist around every modern Nintendo console, and the Switch is no exception. Some smart people have managed to get alternative operating systems, including Linux, running on the Switch. It's not difficult to do now with the tooling others have created. With a general purpose operating system installed, one can do almost anything a normal PC can. Why not add test taking to the list?
It was clear from the start that my original strategy of taking my tests through a virtual machine wouldn't work on the Switch.
While I'm sure someone out there has managed to get virtualization working to some degree, resource constraints (we're trying to run an Electron app on modern Windows!) and other challenges made this method unfeasible.
I decided that while I may not be able to run the AP exam application on my Switch, I could still take my AP exams on my Switch.
To bypass this constraint, I looked at a variety of remote desktop and application solutions.
After playing around with a few different platforms, I settled on Amazon Workspaces because they were offering a generous free tier at the time their service best suited my needs.
After some quick setup, I had successfully tested hacking my Switch to boot into an alternative OS and connecting to a remote workstation in order to take exams with college credit on the line.
Also note that I was unable to get the native Workspaces client to work (I don't remember the exact reason why, maybe ARM compatibility issues?).
This forced me to use the web client, so in the end, my Kafkaesque setup also involved launching Chromium to connect to an external machine in order to run a Chromium-based application.
As testing season drew closer, I began having second thoughts about going through with my plan. What if something breaks and I fail my exams? What if the testing application has better anti-cheating measures than I thought and silently reports suspicious irregularities to CollegeBoard? What if I get my college acceptances rescinded over alleged cheating? Even if some of these might seem a bit dramatic, the last two possibilities stayed in my mind long before and after I took the exams. However, when it came time to test, I decided that I couldn't back out after all the preparation. On May 20, 2021, I took my AP United States Government and Politics exam on my Nintendo Switch. There were a multitude of issues, including repeated freezes and disconnections, the longest of which lasted fifteen minutes; nevertheless, I persisted through the exam and made the best effort I could. A few months later, I received my score of 5.
Some notes: I did take other exams in similar ways, though I felt like focusing on one exam made it feel more impactful, especially when combining it with the maximum score, even if it is one of the easier exams. I hadn't quite gotten my setup ready in time for my Macroeconomics exam, so I had to take that on my Windows PC (oh yeah, I had that at my disposal all along!). To keep things interesting, I fired up OBS and recorded myself taking the exam while giving annoying Youtuber-like commentary on questions and explaining my thought process (be sure to smash that like button and hit the notification bell!). I also recorded myself doing the same for my government exam, while simultaneously taking the exam in a very uncomfortable position, kneeling towards a Switch laying on the floor while trying to look past and maneuver my hands around my phone, which was positioned on a small stand directly above in order to record the screen of the Switch. I've got the hours-long video proof I truly did take the exams on my Switch, but can't publish it online, as sharing test questions is prohibited and might prompt a reaction from the Big Acorn. While I'm not under too much threat from CollegeBoard anymore, it's still an unnecessary risk.
"it's still an unnecessary risk" - guy who took his AP exams on a Switch
