Bad Proctors

<p>maybe its by state...ive been to places where it does happen and places where it doesnt</p>

<p>when i took the SAT I twice i got assigned seating twice. the first time it was alphabetical seating, the second time the lady just told us where to sit in the order of when we came in the door... today i took the sat II and we did not have assigned seating at all. </p>

<p>first our proctor told us to put our calculators away</p>

<p>then she read the instructions that said if your taking a math test, take out your calculator.</p>

<p>then without computing what she was reading, she got mad and told everybody who just got out a calculator to put it away. then we told her what she was reading.</p>

<p>apparently she doesnt know how to read clocks either, because she stopped us 5 minutes early on the second test, then i had to raise my hand and show her it was 10:39 not 10:44... sigh</p>

<p>and some asian kid behind me spent like 10 minutes of the time we were supposed to have our books closed, finishing his math section. the proctor told him to put his calculator away when she saw him pressing buttons on it, so he moved it to the other side of the desk so she couldnt see it... sigh. </p>

<p>o well, she seems smart compared to your proctors</p>

<p>When you guys didn't have assigned seating, did you have assigned rooms?</p>

<p>I've always had assigned rooms, however, I know that at my friend's school they give out shuffled cards to the students as they enter the building telling them what room to go to.</p>

<p>i was taking mine at northeast high in st.pete fl and the proctor was crazy..first of all we started at 8:56 instead of 8...n thas never happend this being my 4th time testing...she read directions after like every section...during each break she went around checking tests with id's mutliple times..she made us keep our id on our desks..and she would come up to me at least 4 times during the test and grab my bookelts and unfold them for me because she said it was "sat and act policy" while iw as in the middle of reading....she also only did "approximate" timing and we had less than 25 minutse for the essay but then like 30 on another section</p>

<p>yea i had assigned rooms but no assigned seating. it was assigned rooms by alphabet. but i still cant believe my proctor didnt come around to check whether we were using calculators on non math tests. I mean, an opportunistic person who had their notes on their calc could have easily cheated on chem bio and physics.</p>

<p>We have assigned rooms...</p>

<p>The kids and the proctor were all clueless. There were three of us who actually knew what we were doing. The rest of them knew nothing. The proctor advised us to put away our registration tickets, but to keep out our school IDs, when we were filling out the first 10 sections of the answer sheet. She also told us we could use pens to write the "I hereby..." statement, and that we could write it in print. A student asked her, "How long is this test?" and she said "Roughly three hours, because of breaks". Much to her surprise, we were there from 9 to 1.
She also said the only section we couldn't use pens for was the multiple choice section, thus implying that we could use pens for the essay (and people used pens!). During the first 5 min. break, someone stayed for longer than the allotted time. When he got back, the proctore told him, "You can make it up later... during the next break." He did just that.</p>

<p>I think the College Board needs to do mandatory training for these people. The funniest part of my SATII was when one student said he could write in script. The proctor said just to write it in "something that looks like script". We weren't assigned seats, but were assigned rooms.</p>

<p>should i report my proctor for cutting us short because he was going by the time in his watch instead of that in the clock in the wall???...if i do how does that affect ur score?</p>

<p>They might cancel everyones scores and give everyone a feee retest, but I don't know. If you think you did well then you are safer not saying anything, but you might be hurting other students who did worse because of unfair protoring.</p>

<p>is there any chance they will give me a free retake without cancelling my scores?...cuz i think i did well but i dont know how bad will a really sucky conclusion affect my essay score</p>

<p>Did your proctor start by the time on his watch, too?</p>

<p>If he did, I don't think there's much you can do about it.</p>

<p>..My proctor actually made sure to tell us what her watch said and to set our own timepieces to it, though.</p>

<p>mine just didnt say anything he wrote 9:03 and then stopped at 8:59</p>

<p>buuuuuuuuuuuump</p>

<p>My proctor was ok. She was a little confused about the whole timing thing, and she would say stuff like "OK, this section will be over at 12:30" when it was actually supposed to be over at 12:34 or whatever. She used her own watch/timer, but the times were all right, just what she said was wrong.</p>

<p>Do you guys have like multiple rooms?????? That's so weird!! We have about 15 ppl for the SAT I and about 3 for the SAT IIs every time, so we only have an SATII room and and SAT I room. Weirdness.</p>

<p>Pimpa,</p>

<p>The CB is extremely unlikely to let you keep your current score and then give you a free test. It has happened in the past that the CB has allowed people to hear their scores and THEN decide whether or not to cancel (happened to a student of mine years ago) but only in extremely unusual cases, and only then after people really pushed them hard. I'm not even sure if it was an official CB decision or a frustrated customer service person who just let them choose to end the headache...</p>

<p>Your 4 minute loss on the essay totally sucks. They <em>may</em> offer you the choice of canceling OR retaking (before you know your scores), but that's probably it...</p>

<p>i had two proctors...my school is insane. here's the story:</p>

<p>there were so many kids, so little proctors, we were in the cafeteria. we sat on one side of each table and filled up the whole cafeteria. it was divided through the middle of the room...one proctor, who did mostly the first half of the test was pretty good. she knew what she was doing. the other one didnt seem to care. she was all the way on one side of the room telling us when to start and when to finish, meanwhile, everyone else on the other side of the room couldnt hear her.</p>

<p>it was basically an open invitation for cheating which i did not accept...if anyone had, it wouldnt be a surprise because it was extremely easy to not get caught doing everything collegeboard tells you not to.</p>

<p>DmctNY8 where did you take it? we live in the same county. I would also have to disagree that Scarsdale is the "hardest"... it is just more competitive.</p>

<p>It's not letting me edit my post, so I'll just add it all here (sorry!!).</p>

<p>While taking the test today,the proctor came by several times (during breaks), and read our essays. She also told us that we were not allowed any food, AT ALL, during the test. A student in the back of the room used a cell phone when she went to the bathroom, and it was obvious, but the proctor seemed to be oblivious to that. The two girls next to me, though they had different forms, cheated off me. </p>

<p>If I were to complain to the collegeboard about all of this, would my score, along with everyone else's in my test room, be cancelled? Would we all receive free re-takes, and what action would be taken (if any) against the person who cheated? Thanks for your help!</p>

<p>I have to say that my proctor today rocked. She has done this several times before (an art teacher at my HS), so she knew what she was doing. She used the clock on the front wall in the room, wrote the end time on the board, etc. Wasn't mean or accused anyone of cheating (*****y ones in the past have accused even the most minute actions to = cheating).</p>

<p>I think anyone who had proctor problems should at least write an e-mail to the College Board (you can make it anonymous) to alert them to these issues. When it comes to properly administering exams and properly instructing and training proctors, CB has a few things to learn, apparently. They never made their policy on timers clear, for example, until my SAT students, all of whom were armed with timers (I assumed they were legal, as I was never told otherwise) and had taken practice exams with them, were suddenly instructed to put them away on March 12. (The official policy is that timers are not allowed, but this is STILL not very clear in the registration booklet or the website, nor are the proctors themselves sure about the policy.) This threw off the timing and certainly adversely affected the scores of at least a few students. But CB will never fix these problems unless a LOT of you complain (and even then, there is no guarantee, unfortunately)!</p>