A few weeks ago, a new concordance was released that ACT did participate in:
https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/ACT-SAT-Concordance-Tables.pdf
@CALKYmom I am so sorry to hear about how the stress affected your daughter to the point of making her need medication, but it is totally understandable because this process is a nightmare. Our first letter came two days before Christmas, and we spent Christmas break in a complete stupor trying to wrap our minds around this absurd mess. We all lost sleep, and our daughter was sick, dizzy, nauseated from all the anxiety. Just days before the horrible letter arrived, our daughter had just received a scholarship award. Her first thoughts were that she would be humiliated to have her college admission and scholarship rescinded, and other kids would find out and talk about it. The only thing that made our situation a little better was realizing we had an equivalent SAT score on file. Even though that helps mitigate the damage, I cannot just accept this outcome and move on. I cannot think of any other corporation that has such power to victimize our children (many are still minors when this process is initiated), cause such chaos, anxiety, physical illness, and worse… They have no stated rules to play by - no published guidelines that enumerate what evidence it takes to overcome their accusations.They hold all the cards and can literally rip a child’s world apart, destroy their self-esteem, and dramatically alter their future. I agree with Catherine @ktrrights - something has got to be done to hold ACT accountable and change this system.
Thank you @evergreen5!!! Interesting that the numbers look very, very similar, if not identical to the concordance table that SAT published independently and ACT refused to acknowledge during our initial score review. Oh, and this concordance table DOES support the equivalency of my daughter’s SAT scores to her ACT score. I wonder if they will acknowledge that now that our appeal has been reopened… Might have to send a follow-up letter. Thank you so much for sharing!
Backing up @evergreen5 in comment #340. Those June concordances were jointly released by ACT and College Board. So if that information helps you, @SLM143, get in touch with ACT ASAP. If they reject their new concordance as evidence then they just suck but you might have an actionable case.
This just freaks me out beyond belief! I am so sad and sickened by this for all of you, and at the same time feel that a letter could come at anytime! How can they send a letter after ONE test? Are you kidding me. GEEZZZ. Please keep us posted on what your attorney says. The 2 most surprising things are that it is 15 months AFTER the test, and it was only one sitting! Good luck, my thoughts are with you and your family.
Update since my last post:
ACT has validated my son’s score and he can move forward as planned. He received notification two weeks after he sent back his written statement, along with information to substantiate his score. I can’t tell you the relief I felt, after not sleeping for one solid month. My heart breaks for all of these kids (and parents) who have to deal with this. I know exactly how all of you feel and I wish you all the best of luck.
Hi All:
I’m new to the forum. Like all the post, my daughter was threatened by ACT for her score. She jumped 5 points from a 27 to a 32 on her Oct 2017 test. She was offered a scholarship to her college and accepted. She has gone to orientation, did all the other pre-college activities, and 3 months before the Fall semester, she received the infamous ACT letter questioning the validity of her score.We submitted the required documents to “justify” her score. Let my sidetrack a little, I’m pissed because my daughter, like all the other young adults here, were accused of cheating. ACT can call it what they want, but the fact is, in their response, ACT considered the other person, the “source”. How offensive!!! Okay. I’m finished venting. While we waited for ACT response, we went on the offensive. We scheduled a meeting with the college Scholarship Adviser for the same day we moved our daughter into the dorm. We made a duplicate copy of all the material (transcript showing a 3.9 GPA, a 4 on Calculus AP, a letter from her tutor, a statement from the test proctor, receipts of numerous ACT prep books bought on Amazon, and a receipt from ACT own Online Prep Course (how ironic)) we sent to ACT and sat down with the Adviser to explain the details of each proof. The Adviser said she will review it more and talk to her supervisor. Now the good news, later that same day, we get an email from her stating that she took our documents to her Executive Director of Scholarship and Executive Direct of Admission, and they all felt ACT was unfair, and 5 point jump is absolutely possible given the effort my daughter put into studying. The Adviser and the Directors agreed they will maintain my daughter’s scholarship regardless of ACT’s decision, and notated on her account that her scholarship was not to be cancelled. I called the Adviser today to get a recommendation on how to response to ACT in light of her actions, and she said, “tell them to cancel the 32 score”. We are so happy. Now, my daughter can actually concentrate on studying.
I wish everyone luck in their battles with this corrupt ACT organization, and hopefully give everyone another way to fight ACT. We figured we had nothing to lose by talking to the Scholarship Adviser, and thank God it paid off. Good luck to all.
This is a fantastic post and a huge win for you and more importantly, your daughter! Great job fighting for what’s right!
My daughter lost her fight 1 1/2 years ago and I am STILL pissed off about it!
Congratulations!
Congratulations to the student from the earlier post regarding her ACT issue and the positive resolution with her college. The school should also be commended for their approach to the situation. My son is off to college today and we are still going through the ACT nightmare. We advised the school of the ongoing situation months ago and they have asked that we keep them informed of the status. We are not 100% certain what the school’s position may be in the end should my son’s scores get cancelled. We expect that he will do well his first semester and hopefully the ACT will be a mute issue. We are now going into the arbitration process. If there is ANYONE on this thread that has gone through the arbitration process and can offer specific advice in terms of how best to prepare materials and any other insights on this process, please share your experience. We don’t have great expectations about this given that the ACT has gone through this process thousands of times and has the legal resources to prepare. We will keep trying regardless.
What’s really sad is ACT doesn’t give you the opportunity to plead your case in face to face.
What lawyer are you using? We are dealing with this same situation with my daughter already being in college. Something needs to be done to stop this nonsense.
Have you had any luck with batlling the ACT. They have come back and have done the same thing to my daughter and shes already in college. Such crap!
This happened to my daughter 15 months later! I’m so disgusted!
We went through the arbitration process. It was a joke. Arbitration was rude. The arbitrator did not even OPEN our submission. I sent in a bound up binder that was sealed. They send it back to me after the ruling. The seal was not even broken. All that work for nothing. It may have been that we got a bad arbitrator as they are assigned to arbitrators local to the student. Honestly the ONLY way to fix this problem is to get the ACT regulated.
On what ground could they possibly refuse to give her a score higher than 25 if she earns it? I’d get that in writing, because it means that a 25 could represent anything up to a 36. With all those character references, it is amazing that they’re targeting her still.
Well, we just got this paperwork in the mail today! I am shocked, confused and pissed off. My son has worked so hard and to be accused of cheating bec/ of the jump in his scores. I have read the paperwork over and over. I have a question for you all: could he take the act again normally. Sign up again and retake and get a entire new score that is unaffected by this investigation. This sucks bec/ he hasn’t even looked at the act/sat stuff in 7 months bec/ we thought he was done. He is going to have to work with tutor again, etc… If we do the private retest, how long does it take for that to happen. Am I right in assuming that the score we reported to colleges will sit there unaffected until either act or us comes to a conclusion. So if we drag it out with them, the colleges we reported that act score do not know that it could be pulled until they hear from ACT. We are in the process of applying know. Guess we shouldn’t submit his score to anymore colleges. Thoughts, how did you all do this. I feel so bad for my son. He is giving up
I have not visited this forum in some time, and, like @Lindagaf , I am a test prep tutor as well. Last year I had two students whose scores were flagged. The first had done work with me, and his score jumped 6 points from a 25 to a 31. His 25 was in large part to an abnormally low math score on his previous test (he believed that he had misbubbled part of that low test). He lost appeals/arbitration despite a sheaf of letters/testimonials/information (including his scores on PT’s he had done with me. He ended up taking the test 3 more times… and on his last try he got another 31 and got a full ride to his U. of Choice.
The other student came to me after receiving a letter after he had gone from a 19 to a 30. In his case, when he began working with me, it was apparent that the 30 was wrongfully obtained. His PT scores were, at best, cracking the low 20’s. He stopped working with me when it became apparent to both his parents and me what had occurred.
To everyone who got screwed over with the system, you have my complete sympathies. I know in the case of student #1 that his score bump was valid and he got shafted by the ACT. However, the system did catch student #2’s cheating.
@ktrrights, I am a former journalist, and if I had any connections left to a national-level organization, I would help you in a heartbeat. I got out of broadcast journalism in a great part because, even in 2006, I could tell that it was becoming a career whose workers were disrespected more often than they were appreciated. I really don’t have any connections anymore, or I would put you in touch with them.
Now I get to deal with the CB & the ACT. CB can’t seem to write an SAT with all questions valid, then see each of their tests suddenly “appear” all over the internet before they’re done giving them on the West Coast. The ACT preaches test integrity, then pays proctors peanut shells to be there while students get away with all types of malfeasance.
I have taken the ACT or SAT at multiple sites in my area over the last decade. I have observed that, in fact, it could be VERY easy to cheat because most proctors say “go” then disappear for the test behind newspapers or tablets until “5 minutes remaining”. I have found myself on repeated occasions thinking that it would be SO easy to cheat had I been trying to do so. I have other students who agree with me. Students leave their answer sheets uncovered; an unscrupulous student sitting next to a student they know is intelligent could easily look over at the smart’s student test long enough to copy answers.
On the September 2018 ACT, 1 of my students saw a student wearing headphones and listening to music throughout each test (hoodie up). In another room, a student was clearly using his iphone to look up answers (only getting busted when he accidentally pushed the SIRI button and the phone began talking). I have been told by my female students that it’s hard to get a toilet stall because so many students are going in and using their entire break in a stall to use their phones.
Finally, the seemingly arbitrary nature of the appeals reminds me of pro athletes who have to do a “random” drug test (even if that has to take place at 4 in the morning after a late-night cross-country flight). Our college admissions machine in the U.S. is very broken, but as long as certain public and private high schools keep giving out 4.0 GPA’s like a Pez Candy Dispenser, the ACT/SAT provide the best solution for having some sort of measuring stick to prove a student’s basic abilities. It just stinks that the system punishes not only those whose minds don’t work rapid-fire but also those who have overcome struggles only to be told based on specious “data” that their accomplishments don’t count.
Those of you who are still stuck in this quagmire, keep fighting. Those of you on the other side of this horse manure, keep fighting!
All -
Like many of you, I stumbled across this site researching for answers. Last month my son took the ACT and received a composite score of 34. This was his second time taking the test and we were elated. Thought we were done with testing. Yesterday, we were contacted by his high school college counselor. The counselor was reviewing his score and recommending that he proactively retake the ACT as he has a high likelihood of having his score flagged.
The reason is his 13 point improvement between his initial testing back in the Spring and his most recent September score. He denies cheating and we believe him. Both his counselor and his tutor attribute the improvement more to his poor initial score, rather than his later score. His first score of 21 did not correlate to his grades and mock testing results. High 20s is what was expected, however, he had minimal prep beforehand and wasn’t accustomed to the time constraints.
To get his score up, we hired a very accomplished (expensive) tutor with a proven track record of bumping scores. Hour and a half sessions, 1-2 times per week, for roughly 10 weeks. A lot of time spent on testing methodology, working quickly, deciphering questions, equations, etc… He busted his rear. A lot of homework, mock tests, etc… The tutor was very happy with his progress and predicted he would score over 30.
Well, he did and is potentially being penalized for doing too well. I wanted to post here to see if there is agreement on him proactively taking it again before we hear from ACT. Based on everything I am reading and hearing, sounds almost certain that his 34 will get flagged. Evidently it takes 6 months to receive notification. Although the ACT website states that score improvement isn’t a review factor in itself, sure seems like it is. I think the cheating insinuation is an excuse.
If he takes again and scores within 3 points, will it keep them from flagging his 34? Should I sit back and wait, hope for the best? Will they flag both scores if he does well again? He is a senior and is applying to schools. With his ACT score and GPA, he is currently eligible for merit scholarships at several schools. I am afraid if he retakes and scores high 20s, they will disqualify his 34 and he will lose eligibility for the merit opportunities he is looking at. This thing could end up costing him/me over $100k in lost funds. We have detailed tutoring reports, however, it sounds like the appeal process is a joke. The longer he waits to retake, he will lose familiarity with the test. Need to have a plan. Help!
A pro-active re-take might not be acceptable to ACT as they seem to want a re-take under specially-proctored circumstances, per the posts on this thread. However, a pro-active re-take might be a very good idea if you decide NOT to try to deal with ACT directly via arbitration but instead explain any flagging to your son’s colleges. A poster above did just that and they had a good outcome. The extra ACT can serve as confirmation.
Of course, if ACT comes calling you would want to provide the evidence that your son didn’t cheat, it receipts and the testimony of the tutor, guidance counselor, etc. ACT won’t look at it (again, based on previous comments in the thread) BUT . . . . at least you would show the colleges that you are working in good faith - ie have nothing to hide.
@Lostcause , I see no harm in retaking. The sooner the better. I suspect his score will be flagged. If he can get close to his lates score on a retake it’s less likely to cause problems. It might also alleviate the stress of waiting for an axe to fall.