My daughter just called us from her testing center in tears. Their room proctor messed up and they entire room she was in are having their test invalidated and they are being sent home. Needless to say, we aren’t very happy right now. Especially since she felt like she was doing much better and had been really studying hard in preparation.
First the proctor started to read them instructions for the ACT and students complained saying we are taking the SAT. Then some of the students realized they should have been hitting the time limit and raised concerns and the proctor said they were fine and to keep on going. Finally the proctor realized that she had messed up and someone came into the room told everyone they would have to stop and leave and their test are going to be invalidated.
Now we have to figure out how to find a new test location that works with my daughters camp schedule to try and take this again. Anyone else ever have something like this happen??
Never had that happen, but grrrrr! I would be livid. These kids have enough stress already. But what’s done is done. Try to help your D get over this bump in the road with grace. Good luck! Seems like SAT should bend over backwards to get her a seat on her next preferred date at her preferred location.
So daughter just got home and gave us the details. The proctor first started to read the wrong instructions as I said before. So after that fiasco they start to take section 1 and after the 65 minutes are up they are told they get a 5 minute break and then when they return they will finish up section 1. Several of them said that didn’t sound right shouldn’t we be done with that section. They took their break and came back and the proctor had them go back to section 1 and gave them another 45 minutes to finish. She then gave them another 5 minute break. The kids kept telling the proctor that this wasn’t right and wasn’t how the previous test went.
She kept insisting it was correct and then after their second break they moved on to the writing section and she tells them they have 65 minutes which they all knew wasn’t correct. They complained again but she told them to just start the test. The proctor then left the room and came back in and then adjusted the time limit. She apparently left the room again and then a few minutes later someone else came in to tell them all to stop and that there was a mistake and their scores/test were going to be invalidated. They gave the kids the number to College Board and told they they would have to call and complain.
The proctor who screwed up never came back in the room to apologize so the 20 or so students now have to figure out how to get a makeup. What is more upsetting is the fact the kids knew it wasn’t right and they all kept telling the proctor and she never went and asked until it was way too late.
Sorry this happened OP. I might not take the test again at this site. If this test was at your D’s high school, I would go to the superintendent. Clearly the testing coordinator did not train the proctors and they need a process in place to make sure this never happens again.
That is just terrible! Totally agree that the college board should be bending over backwards to accommodate schedules for these students. So sorry this happened to your daughter and these students!
Yes, this is my D’s high school. Actually its one of the best schools in our state so the fact this happened is actually very surprising knowing the high standards of the school.
So just looking at testing dates, the next SAT is August 24th well after the common app goes live and she will be submitting applications. Any idea if they would do a special make up exam or do you think she will have to wait until the August date to try again? She’s already taken the test twice and she is trying to increase her scores to improve her changes at Purdue. GPA is fine but she’s worried about her SAT score.
Purdue did away with rolling admission a few years ago so as long as everything is there before the EA deadline on 11/1, she’ll be fine waiting until the August date to retake. Purdue releases EA decisions in January.
I knew Purdue decision isn’t until January but the other schools she applying to make decisions earlier. I’m more concerned about her back up choices. She is getting her wisdom teeth taken out this summer and will also be away at summer camp volunteering for two weeks so we hadn’t planned on her now having to do more test prep. Plus she had a tutor that now I may have to extend so wasn’t planning on that extra expense either. She is on the bubble for some automatic scholarships at two of her backup schools so just a small increase in her SAT would give her more money if she doesn’t get into Purdue.
We had a similar SAT issue a few years ago but it was on a huge scale. I think it was a problem with the test booklet. Anyway, I had my D register for the next ACT the moment she got home. I paid way too much for late fees and stand by fees. I told her that she needed to do some practice exams to be ready and if her scores were decent she could retake the first ACT of her senior year. Talk about stress. It was crazy. We got a book and I think she had a few weeks to work on it. Her ACT score came back good enough and I said one and done. I felt bad considering she prepped for the SATs for nearly a year, and this was her third shot, and she just needed to bump her score a bit. But after the SAT snafu, I was done giving college board money.
I’m sorry your family has to go through this. Best of luck
I’ve proctored the SAT many times, including the May exam a few weeks ago.The directions are incredibly specific. You read from the script. When a section begins, you can look to see when it starts… so if you start a section at 9:32 and it’s a 30 minute section, you can look at the chart to tell you to end it at 10:02.
Hard to imagine any adult having such incredible difficulty following along.
Keep us updated. I’m curious what they will do. I agree with a pp that each time I’ve proctored a test - any test - PSAT/SAT/ACT/state tests, it’s always been super scripted so incredibly easy to do. I find myself wondering if the proctor stayed out partying a little too much last night or has something else going wrong in their mind. What happened is really, really off - esp going back to a section after a break. That doesn’t happen in any test I’m aware of.
Well my daughter knows who the proctor is as her son is in my daughters grade. I’m keeping my mouth shut about it to her and told my daughter not to say anything either. I did contact the school superintendent just to make him aware of the situation.
The person who came in the room said something about getting a make up exam but I have no clue what they based that on. My guess is they will only either offer us a refund or a free sign up for the August exam. We heard from someone else who was in my daughters room as well and they said their son was devastated. They spent money on test prep as well to get ready for this exam and now feel it was all wasted by the proctors inability to follow the directions.
I truly hate it when teachers/proctors don’t live up to the standards they expect and hold their students accountable for. I’m so sorry this happened to your D.
At the very least, the CB should offer a refund to all affected students. Ideally, they should schedule a special sitting just for them, but I can’t imagine that happening. It’s very strange to me that the proctor had the ACT instructions at all. They are separate tests, so why were there any ACT instructions in that room?