ACT Testing Wrongly Accusing Cheating

Wow. Of course students that test poorly often re-take the test to improve his/her scores. I think the ACT (and SAT) perhaps needs to limit re-takes to one. They are creating their own situation by allowing multiple retakes.

I hope you do create a petition and take this to Washington. This is unfair and inappropriate bullying of students/parents. What happen if a student commits suicide because they worked so hard to retake, only to be accused of cheating and has their college offer rescinded? This during an already stressful time of high school.

I think there are other areas of widespread cheating (ie, international) that should be investigated rather than targeting individuals who improved because they buckled down with test prep work!

I think sharing your story with the media, writing a petition, and going to Washington could be effective. Good luck to you and so sorry you and your students are dealing with this.

If this had happened or does happen to one of my kids, I will be very upset. But, I have to ask, why not just have your child retest? If they truly got an accurate score, they will get the same score again within a point.

The one student had gotten two 25’s in a row - shouldn’t that already confirm? I think that student also was set in their college plans by then (and luckily for them the college did not change their mind based on ACT’s “issue”). The OP @ktrrights (and the other parents in the thread) was just trying to inform others, and saying they were going to try to effect change so that does not happen to others. That is noble and helpful!

Your question is understandable. There are a few reasons why we chose not to re-test.

  1. My daughter did not cheat
  2. After learning how corrupt the ACT is, I did not trust that she would be given a fair test. Our concern was that she would be given a more difficult test or no way to really know what the test outcome would be. In addition, had my daughter re-tested and earned an even higher score, the ACT would not give her that score. They would only clear the original that was cancelled. When we asked the attorney Michael Clifton he refused to answer our questions about that very thing.
  3. I trusted the justice system to fully review our submission of documents. I received our packet back from the arbitrator last night and NONE of my tabs had been opened or reviewed. I intentionally bound them so that it was visible to verify which sections they considered. None were opened. I am now objecting to the arbitration.
    Stay tuned!

I hope this helps the understanding.

My recommendation is to apply to the schools that you are interested in with what ever score you have and inform them that you are still waiting for the results of the Oct score. The ACT is clearly targeting seniors and are waiting until after the deadlines with many students.

Does anyone know how to start a petition? I am ready to move this forward. Please spread your stories on FB to get the word out. Feel free to contact me through PM. I cannot post my contact info on these posts. College Confidential will not allow it.

The other thing bothering me here is that we have all heard that the ACT requires working quickly because there is not a lot of time per section. More practice (by taking real tests or practice tests) would, of course, help with that. So why (rhetorical question) does the ACT not believe that more practice can help results on their test? That is why, honestly, I think they need to re-think their own rules. Maybe only allow one re-take. It IS getting nuts with the Super Scoring etc. Perhaps both College Board and ACT should go to that. But that is not the rule now, and these test takers did follow the rules. The “cheating problem” - my understanding is that is more of an issue with the overseas testing venues.

I agree and have also found that the cheating is predominantly overseas. For this reason I believe the ACT is using statistics to cancel US students to offset their cheating issue. As far as re-testing, ACT encourages it and has it documented in their terms and agreements that a student is allowed a maximum of 12 opportunities to re-test yet if they suspect irregularities they only allow 1 re-test option. I have ALL of this documented by the ACT and recorded calls with their attorney Michael Clifton. They are so corrupt.

Well, IMO, too much re-testing gets ridiculous. But the ACT/SAT/colleges are the ones setting these policies, and your student was following their rules, and re-taking tests to improve scores (so that admission and possible merit $ will be possible) is common - and the whole reason for retakes - to improve scores!
I saw a thread from 2010/11 and this was happening back then too. The only difference is in that thread, most didn’t believe the OP. But I think everyone here is empathetic and understands there is a pattern of ACT doing this.

Very unfair to target US students when the problem is with international students.

ACT needs to implement solutions from their end…such as fewer test takers per room ; or multiple versions - if they are so worried about wandering eyes. I think it is ethically wrong to accuse innocent students of cheating - and that’s what they are doing with this “guilty til proven innocent - oh and we rarely accept the appeal” strategy.

Do they realize that 1) students are exhausted from this grind of test taking, college applications, and rigorous course schedules and extracurriculars, 2) if they target the wrong student with their accusations, this could have detrimental impacts to the studen’ts well-being and mental health? (not to mention the parents too).

I actually have cases that date back to the 70’s. They have never been fought which is why they continue to get away with this. Good luck to you.

Wow. Please do move forward, and let us know what happens.

@ktrrights, here is how to send people a private message, so you can share your contact info. Access College Confidential on your computer. Click on the blue user name of any individual. Click on the orange button that says message. Type away in the big box and be sure to press “post message.”

I was sorry to hear about your arbitration results.

Thank you very much! Merry Christmas

@ktrrights You can start a petition on change.org. If you really want to rock the boat and make some noise, posting on social media, especially twitter or facebook, and tagging act.org is the way to go, imo

Thank you!

This is happening to me too right now. I don’t know what to do and it sucks. I’m a second semester senior who took the test in the first month of senior year. I don’t want to retake the test because I’m worried they will make it much harder. I spent over $2000 on ACT classes and took the ACT 3 times and the SAT 3 times. Any advice for me as I’m planning to make a claim?

Just retake it. It doesn’t sound like students are winning a challenge.

It sounds like they don’t want students re-taking the test more than once. Perhaps they should just have a rule that allows only one re-take.

Your missing the point we are all trying to make. Personally I didn’t trust the ACT to give a fair retake or disclose the correct outcome. These Students have worked hard to earn these grades. They are being used as statistics to offset the ACT INTERNATIONAL

I agree. We did not trust the retake either. I lost our fight but I still encourage everyone to fight and help get a petition started to stop ACT from doing this.

@IamRASCAL I am confused. If you took the test in the 1st month of senior year, how in the world did you take it 3 times? And what were your scores that they have questioned you? It would help to know the facts from your particular situation.