The fact that ACT is taking the time to write this response and post it on their website suggests that they are concerned about potential legal action. Perhaps ACTs response will help some of the posters here obtain an attorney. ACT would probably not write a response to a spurious accusation.
Or maybe this is just an effort to limit the collateral damage from this thread. How many parents are directing their kids down the SAT path to avoid the scenario described here?
General question here…shouldn’t ACT being leaning on its test centers to ensure the validity of scores? The college where I work was a test center for a while and the “rules of engagement” are pretty strict. I’m not exactly sure how students could engage in outright cheating with the requirements for seating and such. And if that’s the case, it’s on ACT to remedy that testing center situation.
^You’re absolutely right. If ACT hired more reliable proctors, the questionable tests would decrease dramatically.
Pay a proctor $15-$20 per hr, you’ll get proctors who don’t care. They would rather play on their cell phones than monitor the test.
Pay them $40-$50 per hr, you’ll get more qualified proctors who care. 2-3 students alone will pay for the cost of that proctor. Meanwhile there are prob 20-30 students in the average test room. There’s still more than enough money to pay the executives.
@mmk2015 , totally right. I’ve been offered proctoring gigs myself. The pay is minimum wage! Who wants to get up on Saturday morning at 6 am to watch students doing a test for hours on end, for peanuts?
What I find interesting is that College Board doesn’t seem to be causing the same issues for test takers. Or at least not that I have read about, apart from high tech cheating scandals. Anyone know of similar stories for the SAT?
Though the official ACT poster has said they will not retun to this thread, I suspect he/she will. I can understand that they want to dissuade potential cheaters and the red to protect their tests, but I can’t understand why they rarely rescind their accusations when they are given compelling evidence to show people haven’t cheated. What’s to be gained for them?
This is not just an ACT problem. SAT has the same problems: bad proctors, questionable scores.
It just happens that the venting you’re reading in this blog is under an ACT forum.
But is SAT singling out students, accusing them via US Mail of cheating, and saying they sat in a place they didn’t and copied another test taker?
ACT is obviously concerned about PR. As they should be. It is unethical to accuse students of cheating and not read the files they present proving they were sick during first test sitting etc — even students that had situations like they went straight to hospital with pneumonia and stayed for days directly after the exam were not given a break from the accusations. They seem to have some sort of random generator that targets a few students with scores that went up “too much”…meanwhile the ACT actually ENCOURAGES repetitive test taking so that they make more $$$ per student. Up to 11 retakes, for 12 tests total, they say!
I agree. And if SAT is engaging in this same practice - all the more reason why these two Giants should be regulated. Our students academic future depends on these testing scores and in most cases are required for higher education.
It is ridiculous they have gotten away with this for as long as they have.
I feel so bad for everyone here… Has anyone except me got a positive result from their appeal or arbitrary??? Feel free to ask me any question if you guys have about what I did for my appeal or so! I really want to help everyone in the best way I can.
@ktrrights , it isn’t just their academic future. In the case of my friend mentioned earlier, they took away his athletic scholarship. This parctice can have severe financial consequences. I do feel the need to point out that there are now hundreds of colleges that do not require standardized tests. And at many colleges that do require them, the score needed is pretty low and is achievable by the majority of students.
It’s total BS that they “offer” the option of retaking the test at their “expense”. It’s not uncommon for kids to not be able to replicate the same score, and if they do worse on another test for whatever reason, it’s possible they don’t meet the threshold for any scholarship they’ve been given. That money might be taken away, or they might be removed from their team until the issue is resolved.
@kathy00 , if you have time, it might be very helpful to list here whatever steps you took to be successful in your appeal. There are people reading this thread who could really use your advice, and future readers seeking help might stumble on this thread. The disclaimer ACT linked on this thread pointedly says that “sometimes” appeals are successful, which implies that the majority of the time, they are not.
@kathy00 I would be interested to know if you received notification of winning this appeal after this thread was started. If so, I am not saying that you shouldn’t have won your appeal, but it seems that many other posters who also should have won their appeals did not, and the ACT may have needed to let someone win so they could come on this thread and state that “sometimes appeals are successful.”
Good question @shuttlebus ACT needs to rectify the wrongful accusations of other posters and students and drop these cases. THAT is what they need to do rather than issue defensive statements on CC.
I would be really interested to know how your case differed from all of ours who has lost. I completely agree you deserved to win. However, if your case mirrored all of what we have submitted then ACT is clearly discriminating bu know treating all the students equally. They are obviously concerned about all these complaints or they would not have responded. I think we ALL need to go to our state representatives and demand that the ACT is regulated.
This thread started back in 2016. However it in interesting that the winner got their results shortly before the ACT responded to this post - 2 years later!
@Lindagaf @shuttlebus
I got a mail from ACT questioning my score in March 2018. They were questioning my September 2017 one as I mentioned previously in this thread. My score went up from April 2017(19, 31, 34, 27)to September 2017 (31, 35, 33, 31). They were specifically questioning my English score since the other scores were similar but english wasn’t.
I decided to choose the third option they gave me; to send my stuff that could support the increase in my score.
I got a letter from my counselor and Lit teacher, high school transcript(3.7ish uw gpa) and my personal statement. In my statement, I noted that I was so nervous because it was my first national exam and totally ruined the english section. However, my other scores from the same sitting test proves that my skill level is not at a level of 19 since I got a 35 in reading and so on. Also, after getting 19 in english section, I intensively studied ACT during my entire summer vacation and got my score increased to 33 composite. I lastly noted that I have no time to study and retake the test since I have less than 10 weeks left till graduation(at that time) and that I’m not going to be in the States during summer.
After sending all my stuff at around March 29 or 30, I got my result at April 30.
This is the exactly what they said in the mail.
“The Test Security Review Panel has recommended that we close our review of your September 2017 scores and continue to treat your score as valid”
My score isn’t cancelled and I didn’t get anything else after this.
Awesome news for you. Interesting again how all of a sudden students are winning now that ACT is on the the publicity from parents and students.
@kathy00, that’s really helpful. It appears that your parents were not involved. I wonder if that made a difference.
@ktrrights I agree. @kathy00, it is great that ACT ruled in your favor.
However, it seems that other posters provided even more documentation, such as doctor’s proof of illness on test day, seating carts, etc. yet the ACT refused to back down on their ridiculous claims of cheating which were based on nothing more than a score increase.
This practice of invalidating scores needs to be investigated. The ACT should need more “evidence” than an increase in a score before it is able to invalidate a score. AND when it does invalidate a score, the criteria for a successful appeal needs to apply to all cases, which does not appear to be the case at this point.
I suspect the major factor in @kathy00’s favor was that the anomalous score was the original 19 in English, particularly when paired with her original 31 in Reading.
I’m thankful for this thread, as my son just received the letter from ACT yesterday. I am sick to my stomach and have found all of these comments valuable resources. He first took the ACT, December of Junior year, as a baseline, to which he did ok, with a score of C25. He took it again 3 more times until June with each test ranging from one being C23, C26 and C25. The colleges he was applying to required a range from C26-C28. He was working with an English tutor and math tutor weekly, during this time as well. English was consistently averaging 28-30 and Math 23. Science would vary from test to test. We decided to up the tutor ante, for the October 2017 test. This would be the last and final ACT test he could take before applications were due! I found the tutor through an ACT testing center and he was very expensive, but we thought it would help get that math score up. He came highly recommended and had amazing credentials.
I wanted to mention, that he took a practice test at that ACT center, to which I paid $75.00 with an analysis. He scored 28 the first test, spring of Junior year and right before the new tutor in October, he tested again and scored a 26. The tutor worked with him for 5 weeks prior to the test and gave him practice tests and exercises, daily. He reported his progress every step of the way. He took the test in October of 2017 and scored a 28. We were thrilled. His Math went up 5 points and English stayed the same, and he bombed the science. He applied to all of his schools, sending the last ACT with a score of 28. He was accepted into most of his schools and accepted an offer to one in April, 2018.
Then the bomb drops yesterday… he was pretty much accused of cheating. My comment/question is, he ranged from the lowest of a 23, to the highest of a 28, with two 25’s and a 26. This seems reasonable and on par with varied tests, level of knowledge, how much time and effort he put into the assigned work, etc…It wasn’t like he went from a 17 to a 30. They stated int he letter, that if he retests and receives a grade within 3 points of the 28, they will validate the test. But his three other ACT’s are within 3 points of the last test. I just don’t get it. My husband wants to appeal, I say he buckles down the next few weeks with the tutor, and re-tests. Of course, not practice testing and studying since last October, he’s not in the right frame of mind to do well. (Senioritis) I’m at a loss and just don’t know what to do. He has new student orientation at the university he will be attending next week.
I’m just not sure what the next step should be. My husband is meeting with guidance at his HS. After reading all of these posts, I have no faith in the appeal process and I also think that he will be set up for failure with the private - retesting. I’m wondering if the post above @kathy00 #294 - made a difference that no parents were involved.
@ktrrights - thank you for your insight.