What Happens When a Test Goes Wrong?
During the first waves of the March 8, 2025 SAT administration, technical difficulties essentially undermined test takers’ best efforts. Essentially, the Bluebook app forced the submission of many—anywhere from 5,00 to more than 10,000–tests before those tests were completed, generally during the 2nd Math module. All the work those test takers invested to perform their best when the test counted was squandered at the last moment. What did College Board offer to make things right? A full refund A voucher for a free test A special makeup date two weeks later Choice to keep March 8 score AFTER seeing the score Changing the blind cancellation to an option for students to see their scores first was an updated and entirely unprecedented response by College Board on March 13, undoubtedly due to public pressure. Yet, some consider even this response inadequate, especially when emotional suffering and negative impacts on student schedules…
Test Day Nightmares: Scantrons in the Streets
Imagine you were driving down the road and saw what seemed to be really important paperwork regarding your most fervent academic aspirations. This may sound like a wild hypothetical, but, too often, truth is stranger than fiction… Raina Porras and her mom were in the car when they saw papers littering the street last week. Looking closer, Porras, a junior at El Paso High School, saw what seemed like Scantron bubbles filled in across the pages. Her mom joked that the papers were her PSAT scores because she’d just taken the exam the day before. Her mom was right. Apparently, the answer sheets for the SAT exams that students took at El Paso High School on October 27 were lost in transit after being submitted to UPS. According to the El Paso Independent School District, staffers recovered all but 55 of the answer documents. What can be done for students…
Is My SAT or ACT Test Center Closed?
Into each life, a little rain–or snow or natural disaster or pandemic–must fall. Isn’t that how the line goes? No matter what calamity comes your way, don’t make it worse by showing up for a test that’s been cancelled. Both College Board and ACT maintain pages with critical information about test center closings and reschedules. SAT Test center closings for the SAT are listed on the SAT Test Center Closings page a few days before each test date. Information about makeup testing is posted to this page as it becomes available. If a makeup date has been confirmed, that information is included. Note that students affected by test center closings will be notified by email, possibly before the official page is updated. It’s also worth sharing that the College Board page doesn’t always update quickly, so consider checking in with the school hosting your test if you have reason to…
Test Day Nightmares: The Case of the Missing Tests
Sometimes, even doing everything right can’t protect you from the wrong outcomes. Imagine being a teen who takes all the right steps to ensure that he nails down his best test scores by the end of junior year, knowing how productive and relaxing the following summer and fall will be with that critical aspect of the college application taking care of. Our model student plans for late winter test date, knowing how stressful spring can be. He ideally prepares with experts and takes plenty of perfect practice tests. He arrives on test day rested, ready, and confident and then proceeds to maintain focus, energy, and enthusiasm to the very last question. Our hypothetical hero would probably leave the exam feeling really good about both the steps taken to ensure a strong test and his performance in the moment. Imagine, then, how crushed he and his fellow testers would feel months…
Test Day Nightmares: Proctor Problems
If the path to your best test scores involves a chain of critical events from lessons to practice tests to the real thing, then proctors may well be the weakest link in that chain. Exams like the SAT and ACT practically define the word “standardized” in nearly every dimension. Yet, the actual administration of these influential instruments is handed over to lightly trained, lightly managed part-timers. Far too many test day nightmares can be attributed to the particular nincompoop in charge of the proceedings. Some proctors don’t know how to get a test started. Others lack understanding of the admission policies. Still others bungle timing, mismanage crises, or just distract test takers: I’ll never forget hearing a student describe how her proctor worked on elaborate floral arrangements during the test! You can and should protect yourself from proctor problems by studying your rights as a test taker until know more…
Test Day Nightmares: Naked Gunmen?!
The day of a big standardized exam can test the nerves of anyone, no matter how well prepared. Not only do test takers need to contend with the gauntlet of academic and strategic challenges posed by the exam itself and the test anxiety these ordeals trigger, but they may also encounter external threats to their precious peace of mind. You need to be prepared for anything on test day, from clueless proctors to meteorological mayhem to animal attacks. But who expects a naked gunman? A high school student said he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A naked man, allegedly armed with a gun, in a bizarre situation with police in Las Vegas. “The guard told us don’t go out there,” Chris Merhi told KSNV-TV. There’s a man outside. He’s naked with a gun.” Mehri was taking a pre-SAT test with nine other students at Life Springs Christian Church when…