Students Fail AP Tests Because Website Cannot Handle HEIC Images from iPhone

Students Fail AP Tests Considering Website Cannot Handle HEIC Images from iPhone

In a baroque turn of events, it is being reported that students are failing Avant-garde Placement (AP) tests because they are unable to upload photos of their responses captured using iPhones in HEIC image format. The College Lath website only supports JPG, JPEG, and PNG image formats, so anyone who tries to upload an HEIC format image is unable to submit their answers.

The College Board website specifically lists the supported file formats, however, many users seem to be unaware of the setting on their iPhone which is used to capture photos. As per The Verge:

Simply the testing portal doesn't back up the default format on iOS devices and some newer Android phones, HEIC files. HEIC files are smaller than JPEGs and other formats, thus allowing you to shop a lot more photos on an iPhone. Basically, only Apple (and, more than recently, Samsung) use the HEIC format — nigh other websites and platforms don't support it. Fifty-fifty popular Silicon Valley-based services, such every bit Slack, don't care for HEICs the aforementioned way as standard JPEGs.

In a statement shared by College Board with The Verge, it is reported that but less than one% of the students were unable to submit their results, which ways that a majority of iPhone users, as there are many in that age range who take AP tests, were able to successfully submit their results.

The College Lath had to send out an email to students notifying them of the image format issue, and also tweeted a guidance bulletin then that students can change the default format to 'most uniform' on their iPhones.

If yous desire to submit a photo of a handwritten AP Test answer from an iPhone or iPad, make sure to change your photographic camera settings so your photos are saved equally JPEGs, non HEICs. Go to Settings > Camera > Formats > Select "Most Uniform."

More details: https://t.co/Hqg0CKbB4A. pic.twitter.com/DZ0lLttDgm

— The College Lath (@CollegeBoard) May 12, 2020

HEIC, the container that supports HEIF, short for Loftier Efficiency Image File Format, is popularly used on iPhone, iPad and macOS since 2017. It provides college image quality than JPEG, at near half the file size. iOS normally converts images to JPEG whenever y'all endeavour to upload an image using Safari, or any third-political party apps, for maximum compatibility. While writing this, I tested this with a few websites, equally my iPhone's default setting is 'High Efficiency', and I had zero bug with uploading images anywhere every bit they automatically converted and uploaded in JPEG format.

For now, students who were unable to upload their answers and failed the examination will not be immune re-submissions. Yet, for the hereafter, College Board will permit users to send in their answers to an electronic mail address, if they are unable to submit on the website. This has pushed existing students to start a petition to allow re-submission of their AP piece of work. At the time of writing, the petition already has 25,500+ signatures.