<p>My son has an accommodation on standardized testing (including SAT and AP exams) to use a computer for the essay portion, and he used this during his AP exam in May. In July, my son got his AP score report, which was a 4. We were a little surprised he didn't get a 5, because the test was in an area of great strength for him, and because he thought he'd answered most of the problems correctly, but figured it must have been harder than he thought. We certainly didn't suspect an error with the scoring. Then, on an email list I subscribe to, a Mom posted that her child's AP score had been much lower than expected, and when she had ETS rescore his test and send his answer book, it became apparent that they had not scored his typewritten essays and had given him the lowest possible score for those essays, as if they were left blank. While I thought it unlikely in my son's case, since he had gotten a 4, I called the disabilities coordinator at ETS and asked if they could double check that all of his typed responses had been scored. A few days later, I received a call from someone at ETS who told me that two of the four free-response questions had NOT been scored! They did have them, and sent the two missing essays out for scoring. We just received the rescored test, and not surprisingly, my son received his "5."
I wanted to alert folks to this, because ETS had NOT flagged a problem -- they just made the assumption that he had not done two free responses. Apparently, in the case of the other child, ETS also had not alerted the parents/child of a possible problem. I have since learned of a third case where a student using a computer did not have their typed response scored. My son's teacher (who scores essays for AP) said it's not surprising ETS didn't pick up the problem, because thousands of kids leave one or more essays blank! Still, if your child does his AP essays on a computer and if his score is not what he would expect, you may want to follow up with ETS.</p>
<p>Good thing you checked!!</p>
<p>I would like to know who to call. My daughter is not a great exam taker. I never know what to expect. (She can range from 60-95%). Also has ADHD and will have accomodations, using the computer. I feel that with these 3 examples listed above, I would want to ask that the scores be rechecked unless she got a 5. Head me in the right direction.</p>