College Board Error on June 6, 2015 SAT?

They have not officially offered a retest. They simply said someone would call me back about the possibility and then cautioned that IF I was approved for a retest, I would never see the June 6 scores. Everyone interested in a retest needs to call and email the College Board to demand it. My point to the College Board is that they cannot expect students to wait until October. That is insufficient. They have some retests scheduled already on June 20 for different reasons. They need to expand that and make it available across the country for all students interested (if they took the June 6 test). Otherwise we have to re-study and re-prep when we are back in school with homework, sports and college applications in the mix. October is not a fair alternative.

FYI-

I submitted an inquiry regarding a refund for the June 6th test. As a reply, they did not address my question and instead offered a free sitting at the October SAT exam. I again submitted my request- this time via email in writing. Although my initial inquiry was if we could obtain a refund for June 6 SAT since we did not receive the same service/ product that we had expected to receive because of College Board’s errors, this time I explained that I expected to get same service that has always been offered and that alternatively, I was asking the College Board to provide scoring information on the omitted sections for informational purposes since that is what we paid for.

I will share info that I confirmed both in writing and over the phone:

  1. They will offer a free re-test in October if you request it. Deadline to request it is 6/30. They say they will have test scores out by 6/25 (before the 6/30 deadline)- however I am skeptical of this.

  2. My experience was that if you persist in asking for the refund, they will skirt around the issue, but eventually provide a refund.

  3. Test taker can either get a free sitting or a refund- not both.

  4. The experimental sections will not be scored.

  5. Only one section will now be omitted from a student’s final score (not both sections 8 & 9).

  6. They are refusing to score the omitted section for information purposes.

I would encourage everyone to confirm this for themselves because it appears people are getting different answers on their inquiries.

@TMRSAT

"They have not officially offered a retest. They simply said someone would call me back about the possibility and then cautioned that IF I was approved for a retest, I would never see the June 6 scores. Everyone interested in a retest needs to call and email the College Board to demand it. My point to the College Board is that they cannot expect students to wait until October. That is insufficient. They have some retests scheduled already on June 20 for different reasons. They need to expand that and make it available across the country for all students interested (if they took the June 6 test). Otherwise we have to re-study and re-prep when we are back in school with homework, sports and college applications in the mix. October is not a fair alternative. "

I also confirmed this. I was told that no re-test would be offered over the summer.

Message me or @TMRSAT if you want the link for the petition.

Sorry, that’s a question for the moderator—why would a link to the petition be deleted?

^I am assuming it has to do with the user rules of CC.

MODERATOR’S NOTE:

Correct.

I still think they don’t know what’s going on. My son said BOTH his (8 & 9)math and reading section had 25 minutes listed. I have to wonder if 1) there was a printing problem with both sections or 2) some people got “real” 25 minute math and/or reading sections instead of the correct 20 minute sections.

A retest in October? Seriously? I guess they didn’t think they could get all the materials ready for the standard retest date (for power outages, etc) on June 20. Regardless, I’ll be in a different country then, so that’s not an option that’s open to me. Oh well. At least I’ll get a refund- maybe?

Wait, so only one section is being thrown out? Because I thought it got revised to two…

Can we get CB to offer a retest in September?

I just want to get my opinion out there. To everyone crying and whimpering about how they’re anxious about their scores, I don’t care. I don’t have another opportunity to take the SAT, regardless of whether or not you guys blackmail the CB, and I just want to know my score. I bet it’ll be higher than yours, and I prepped for less than an hour.

And to all of you crybabies saying “oh no, I’ll have to re-prep for the test later this year!! the horror, I’m too stupid to actually speak English effectively or do basic 4th grade math, so i have to pay to be tutored by some unemployed 30 year old, wwahh…” Call the wambulance. Did you ever consider for a minute that maybe you shouldn’t be trying to artificially inflate your scores and instead should learn how to hold a real conversation or improve your English skills?

I trust the CB to do their job and I’m not going to pretend I know the extent of their statistical analyses, or act like my naïve idea of averaging section scores is at all comparable to their millions of datapoints. Whatever they say my score is, my score is. If you do anything that makes colleges doubt anyone’s scores based on some crap, because you want a high score that you don’t deserve, then you can go …

The last thing I want is to see kids in the US in ten years acting like South Koreans, going to test prep all night long and sleeping in school to game the system rather than doing actual work (learning) and proving their real intelligence. Standardized testing is dumb, and so are you.

Doe out. drops mic

Wait…does this mean you aren’t signing the petition? Ha!

I think they should give the scores, and that is the end of it.

And yes, I heard it was a printing error on the students’ booklets, but not on the instructions the proctors were given.

The petition got mentioned in the Washington post.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2015/06/11/unhappy-students-petition-college-board-to-let-them-retake-sat-after-test-error-found/

Guys we are getting closer to being heard! Spread the word!!!

They had still better release scores for students who want them from this sitting, though.

Of course we do not know he did perfect, however, when I picked him up he was very excited about the test, in particular, the math section.

I suppose we will never know, and while I do not think a college would question it, as there is more involved, it will never carry the weight of other tests.

If they did retest, it would not be the exact same test, so the student pays anyway.

I think you should have a choice to have your entire test count, if you had the lower amount of time. He did not need the 20 minutes, so he really does not care if someone got 5 more.

Lake: We had the same situation. I picked up my daughter and she said, “I knew all of the math questions. I checked them twice and I understood all of them.” She only missed 2 last time, so there is a good possibility. If she gets and 800 I think there will be much less celebration because we really will never be sure. The same goes for if her score isn’t very good.

OK, I have been trying with customer service, and now I have a case number and an investigator. If families push back, the CB will have to do something. I think they should show us both scores & refund & offer test to June 6thers.

Hello Ms. Jones,
I am responding to the contact that you sent my son regarding the June 6 SAT. I gave all of my contact information to several people at The College Board, including to someone who said he was a Supervisor, and noted my disappointment that we parents had never received notice of these problems (I wonder how many parents still do not know what your company has done, especially since the students you contacted are very busy with final exams and may have missed your overly-reassuring email). I was told that your organization would use, or at least include, parents’ emails and phone numbers for all future communications regarding this serious matter. Apparently your colleagues did not make sure my information reached you, but, then, they did not give the impression that they considered this such a very serious matter. In fact, at one point, the Supervisor mocked me (“So your son happened to do so well on that one section that happened to be ungraded?!”) so pointedly that I advised him to adjust his attitude before he spoke to other parents.

But it is very serious. All of the students who signed up and prepared and paid and got up early for that exam did so because your organization has made itself a necessity for a college career; a ten to fifty point score difference can make the difference in university acceptance, financial aid, and career path. Your company sells courses of tips to maximize success on individual types of questions, and they do this because they profit from the knowledge that such minute attention to each question is necessary to receive competitive scores. The scores for the June 6th testers will not be the scores that they were promised by the College Board; worse, they will not be the same sorts of scores that the March or October testers will compete with. Experimental sections were not counted for or against the other testers; other testers were not graded for only 80% of the intended graded questions. Other students got a real test, fully graded, according to the exact standard that the College Board advertises throughout its promotional and tutorial materials, and this is exactly what every tester from June 6, 2015, deserves. Waiting until October compromises students who try for scholarships or who have to take the College Board’s Subject Tests, and waiting is simply unfair because these students worked toward a goal to be ready for SAT this summer. The College Board failed them and is trying to compromise with something that cannot be compromised.

Your company needs to 1) score for families both versions of the test, 2) Provide a full refund to all June 6th testers, 3) Offer a new test as soon as possible so that students can meet scoring deadlines.

I will call your office today, and I hope that you will be available and able to meet these needs.

Regards