So I found a random digital watch in my basement to take to the ACT test today in case there wasn’t a clock like last time. However, the testing site was in the gym with a giant count down clock so I pretty much forgot i even had the watch on.
After finishing all four multiple choice sections, we started working on a new experimental section five (which doesn’t count towards your score). About two minutes in one of the proctors taps me on the should and tells me to turn the beeping noise off and follow her out. I look at my wrist and realize there’s a faint beeping noise and turn it off. Apparently there’s an alarm set for 12 every saturday.
Anyways, she tells me that cause my watch beeped my scores are canceled (even though it was after the real part of a test and during a section that didn’t count).
They said that according to the rules they read at the beginning I should have turned my watch off. However, in a gym with 200 people, I could hardly hear what the proctor said at the beginning and had to ask another one to repeat other more important sounding instructions too.
Has anyone appealed to ACT about reinstating their scores and had it work for something like this? This is the last date I can take before some of my college apps are due, and basically can’t apply without this score.
I’m guessing that since the ACT is known for repealing test scores because of cheating suspicions with innocent kids, they won’t consider a score reinstatement for rules you could have seen online, and that are kind of common sense (at least in the eyes of a massive test corporation).
And the dog ate your test registration. If you truly could no hear directions because of noise, then you are expected to notify the predictor. Indeed, the expectations for standardized tests are virtually the same…no return to an earlier section, no cell phone, no electronic noises, no calculator outside is specific limits, no stray papers, time remaining prominently displayed, wall clocks to time subtests and so on. Test takers not only must refrain from cheating, but also disrupting others by making surprise noises. Some may have heard your buzzer and stopped to see if the alarm was pertinent to them. You may have cost others points in an important test. Students sitting for the SAT or ACT must act like Fraser’s wife.
Actually this was during an experimental section (it was NOT graded), so no one’s scores were affected. It also wasn’t loud enough for anyone (including me) to hear. The boy who sat behind me has spread a rumor that I cheated on the test, because all he heard was the proctor telling me to leave because my test was cancelled, not the alarm.
I also did ask a different proctor to repeat instructions several times as did many other people because we could not understand the garbled sound of the proctor speaking through the microphone. I did not hear anything about the watch in repeat instructions.
I agree that the watch should not have gone off. It was not my watch however (some random one I found in the basement) and I did not know how to work it at all and only planned on using the time in case that there wasn’t a clock like last time. Since there was a clock this time, I didn’t even look at the watch.
However, since the watch did go off, ACT can determine whether I should be dismissed and/or my test cancelled. Because of the circumstances, I hope that they will at least score the first four sections that count towards my composite since they were unaffected by any of this. Since I was dismissed, I did not write the essay, and agree to receiving a 0 on it. Basically if they don’t score this test, I cannot apply to the program I want to get into because I need a point higher on the math section.