ACCUSED OF CHEATING ON ACT

Test Preparation AP Test Preparation
1

Today I took the ACT plus writing. I felt pretty confident about my test and felt like I was in the range necessary for my highly selective school. When I was done with the writing section the proctor collected all the tests and then asked me if I would come up and talk with her. I said of course and walked up to the front smiling assuming she was going to comment on my sports sweatshirt like people generally do. Instead she loudly announces that my test is void because I cheated In front of an entire class of kids. I asked her why my test was voided and all she said was if you didn’t want your test to be void you should not have cheated. Then I started going on about how I didn’t cheat, I said I didn’t do anything against the rules. I didn’t use my phone during the break, but then I started to tear up so I stepped outside of the classroom to call my mom. My mom calmed me down enough so I could go talk to the proctor and the head of the test center. I tried to explain to them that I was not cheating and I asked her again what she was accusing me of. She finally said she saw me working on the math section during the reading section. I tried to explain that that was untrue but they didn’t care. I asked what I could do to get the accusation over ruled and the test center coordinator said the only thing I could do was call the ACT, but they weren’t going to believe a teenage girl who has a reason for lying vs an adult with seemingly no reason to lie. I DID NOT CHEAT!!! I have been on honor roll since I’ve been in school. I have scored in the top 90% of every standardized test I have ever taken. I have never once even been accused of cheating. I am an athlete who has worked hard to get an opportunity to attend an extremely selective college through hard, honest work in both my sport and my education. How do I get this accusation to go away? Also i would never cheat but especially not during the reading secrion, which is the hardest section to finish???

Things that seemed unusual to me-
-why did she wait nearly 2 hours to tell me she thought I had cheated???
-why when I asked for her name did she not give it to me?

  • during the test their was a guy who on every single test keep bubbling ,even after she called time and told us to put our pencil down twice whilst staring at him, would continue to bubble s few more answers and then put pencil done??? Isn’t that cheating??? He did that for every single section including the writing section
  • the other cheating she saw and choose not to report was kids on their phones during the breaks. She was standing in the doorway of the room and there was a kid sitting maybe 5 ft away with his phone out texting?? Why did she not void his test??

So basically is their anything you can think of to help me get out of this situation. I was wrongly accused and have essentially no way to defend myself. What can I do to have the ACT revoke my void test. Has anybody else gone through this???

2

Have your parents deal with it. Have them call the ACTs. Have a lawyer as backup.

3

I would NOT bring up what other students were doing, regardless of how you try to protest this. That does not matter at all, and is just a distraction from your protest.

Read the non-scoring and cancelling of scores section of this document, which are the terms you agreed to when you signed up:

http://www.act.org/aap/pdf/Terms-and-Conditions.pdf

It looks like you have the option to go through arbitration, but it will cost you $200 and you may not succeed.

I think you need to call the ACT on Monday and discuss with them. But you are right that it may not do any good. You should include the information that the proctor would not give you their name – although it is possible that it is standard procedure. I would do my best to be calm and matter of fact.

From your post, I assume you are a senior. Check with the school you want to attend (info is probably on their website) to see if they will accept a later sitting of the ACT or the SAT. If they will and you can still register, I would suggest you do it if possible. A protest may take a while to resolve, and it may not come out in your favor.

If they go through with cancelling your score, you could ask the college if they will accept a late score from you if they don’t normally do that. Tell them there were irregularities at the test center, and your score has been cancelled, and ask if they will make an exception and take the next ACT date. They may say yes. I wouldn’t give them any details.

And I’d sign up at a different testing location if you retest…