My D took the test this past Saturday. One of the first things she said as soon as she got into the car was “I think the proctor made a mistake. He gave us 25 minutes and I think we were suppose to have 20 in this one section.” I said, “oh great, this is going to cause problems.”
I’m curious what CB is going to do.
CB is consulting lawyers. What’s a shame for that big money making organization. Nobody bothered to read the booklet. How many years have they been doing this?
The logical way is cancel and let students have the choice to take the test this month or September.
If they try to fix it a different way then the CB integrity will go down hill. They cancelled the tests when there was reports that student cheated in the past. Now they have to cancel because of their wrong doing.
“CB will normalize the scores for the students taking 20 min and 25 min sections and declare the result.”
I don’t think you can normalize the result. Suppose you have a brilliant 2400 student who finished the section in 15 minutes. But the proctor gave them 25, 10 of which she didn’t need anyway. Is it fair to knock her score down to 2390 or 2380 just because ETS couldn’t make the times consistent on the test booklets?
@MidwestDad3 It’s also not fair to the kids who with 5 extra minutes could have gotten those 2400s, but screwed up under time. cancellation for those who received 25 min and optional cancellations for those who got 20 mins seems another possibility
Of course this time change matters, whoever says it might not matter at all obviously doesn’t understand the gravity of this situation. 5 extra minutes on both those sections is a LOT of time. Whether it made a significant difference or not upon the test takers who got the extra time does not matter, but rather it is fundamentally an unfair advantage. Anyone can easily see that it is not possible for Collegeboard to deliver the scores the way they are now. If they really did something that inconsiderate, there would be a LOT of complaints and protests against them.
I am thinking CB may decide to let all of the results stand, but with an asterisk. Each score report would contain a notation of whether the student had 20 or 25 minutes. Then it would be up to the colleges to decide how to interpret the scores.
This is the part that worries me. Here is how they normalize the tests.
“Then we take your raw score and turn it into a scaled score. This is where the score of 200–800 points comes from, and it is done through a statistical process called “equating.” This process makes it possible to compare your score with the scores of other students who took alternative versions of the test, AND TO YOUR OWN SCORES ON PREVIOUS TESTS.”
So the score a student gets on this test is going to follow them for equating purposes on any future tests they take. I’m not sure what that really means but I’m thinking depending on how they figure the scores for this test it could be bad…
@MidwestDad3 100% correct answers on the test will yield 2400 score. Otherwise a 2400 student taking an easier version of the SAT will be penalized. Statistically it is possible to equate two sets of test - a common practice by CB. In my opinion these two 20 min and 25 mins test can be equated.
This is my fear-- I am afraid that they will weight the last section less than they would had there been no problem with the administration. That would be very unfair to the student who studied very hard for this and performed better on the last two sections than the first section, taking the test within the normally allotted times. I am hoping there is a way for them to sort out who got 20 minutes and who got 25 minutes. The kids who got 20 minutes can all be graded and normed together, and the kids who got 25 minutes could all be graded and normed together, and if each pool is big enough, that could work out. Kids who feel like they were disadvantaged by the mistake should be offered a free re-test, and it is extremely important that College Board add a couple of new test dates during this summer and early fall to accommodate any re-testing that they need to provide, because many of the kids are counting on taking SAT subject matter tests in the fall.
Any attempt at trying to normalize the scores for this test will most likely be inaccurate. The only reasonable options Collegeboard has is to curve the sections a little more for students who had less time or allow a free re-take. Those are the only logical options it all really boils down to.
Also, factoring in how a student did on previous administrations of the SAT would be woefully unfair. My D got a lower score the first time she took the SAT than she ever had when she took any subsequent practice test, because she learned how to handle the timing of the test after she took it the first time. Kids are supposed to be able to learn from their mistakes and get credit for that. All of her subsequent practice tests were great, and she felt very confident about her performance on this SAT. She took her test within the normally allotted times and was not given any extra time, though some kids in her room were given extra time. If they decided her great score this time was likely to be invalid just because she didn’t do as well the first time she took it, that would be totally unfair to her and would not take into account the work she did to learn how to time herself correctly and get faster. It would also be a disaster if they decided to asterisk the scores. That would basically invalidate the scores for the top colleges, which are looking for perfect or near perfect scores. It would say to the colleges “maybe this result isn’t valid,” and would essentially just require the students to retake the test anyway to prove themselves again.
I don’t think that you can just “re-norm” the test. It is specific to the original conditions- a 20 minute time. Also, what about those kids given the extended minutes, but then had a proctor change the time in the middle? There really is no way for CB to determine every possible scenario. This was my daughter’s first SAT. She is so ticked off.
The acceptable choice is throwing away the results of students in the rooms that allowed the test in 25 minutes.
Was this a CR, M, or W section? Perhaps if it was Writing, more colleges will just look at CR+M where this test administration is concerned.
I doubt that every proctor for each room in each test center across the nation logged their times. Or at least they can lie about the time they gave students. There were also instances of teachers being persuaded by students to give them the extra five minutes on both sections. So clearly they could get in trouble for doing that so why log it.
I think CB should call students’ homes (not all students though) in addition to asking proctors.
It does not matter. A standardized test is a standardized test. If something is outside of the norm than it’s not a standardized test anymore. And that’s is the whole point of the test. Nobody can decide if the writing section is important for each college or not.
@Ynotgo This was solely CR and Math. I think they just need to offer retest with the date (most practically) in August/September (in weekend that’s not the ACT).
I agree with @Chrysanthemum14 about the inaccuracy of the logged time.
I just spoke with College Board to find out whether they could identify which kids got 20 minutes and which kids got 25 minutes. They told me they can do that. They told me that the proctors must report which students had extra time in each class. That would make the solution easy. If they can identify who got 20 minutes for the sections in question, and who got 25 minutes, they can norm all the 20 minute kids together and the they can norm all the 25 minute kids together. Because the problem was so widespread, they should have plenty of kids to norm each group. That would solve the problem very nicely, I think.
OMG I hope my test scores don’t get canceled or “normalized”! I worked so hard studying for this SAT and I didn’t study at all for my last one! If they try to compare my 1000 pt score difference…ugh;
Just leave it alone.
The kids who got less time were supposed to get less time- OK that’s a NORMAL SAT they took, nothing special.
The kids who got more time got more time- good for them.
The matters of students getting EXTRA time VS students getting LESS of the allotted-time are very different matters.
Sorry my writing sucks 