<p>Just to get everybody's (and my) mind off of worring about answers we can't change, I suggest that we share some horror stories about SAT testing centers.</p>
<p>Today, I went to Cal State LA's center. It's a 10 minute drive from my house so I wasn't worried about getting there early or exactly at 7:45AM. I thought the center would be lenient about my late (5-minute late!) arrival since my last center (San Marino High) wasn't even ready at 8AM. So, it was hard to find my way around the big college campus, running my butt off, trying not to be late. I finally found the building after following a guy and then I had to run up 4 frickin' flights of stairs to get to the floor. The proctor was there and told me to wait at a certain place. He later interrogated me and this other late girl why we were "late"? I was a bit frightened, so I didn't answer. Ughh, needless to say, I shall never go back to Cal State LA which is totally unprepared, mean-spirited, and clockless. Plus the women's restrooms were nasty as heck.</p>
<p>mine was kinda of a good one....proctor didn't really speak english and had trouble reading the instructions...also very lenient on time i got maybe a few more questions done after time was called</p>
<p>My proctor was an interesting guy, he was also french. He was like doing these yoga stretches while we were testing. At one point during one of the breaks he showed us how to some of those stretches. lol he was quite entertaining</p>
<p>We were in the closest possible location on campus to the huge construction project. Lots of yelling in the spanish language and lots of jack hammers and cement trucks about 20 feet outside the window.</p>
<p>But I think I did quite well, so it's not a big deal.</p>
<p>This was my first time taking the SAT and I was on the last sentence of my essay with 30 seconds to go on my stopwatch and my proctor calls time! I really hate how people who keep time use a wall clock for timing! SO MAD! I guess not everybody gets their full time period on the SAT. She also stopped us 2-3 minutes before each section was supposed to be over also.</p>
<p>had to take it 45 minutes from my normal testing center because i signed up late. anyway it was in a middle school cafeteria, dark, cold and damp, with about 200 kids in tiny desks that were meant for little kids. The question booklet could not even fit on the desk let alone my calculator or answer booklet. To make matters worst I am left handed and this desk was the kind with most the desk on the right side. My proctor told me "to deal with it". So i was sitting sideways hunched over, with my answer sheet on my lap my calculator on the floor and my question booklet on my excuse for a desk. The girl in front of me also kept rocking back and forth and smelt really bad and a kid two rows over was nonstop coughing. I am now in pain but I think my results will be good.</p>
<p>I had the 10 minute writing section and the 20 minute math section at the end (doesn't everyone? :P), and had had a red bull and a cup of cherry limeade without any bathroom breaks for God knows how long . . . needless to say, I had a hard time concentrating. And for the poster above . . . . you are a true SAT soldier that deserves a 2400.</p>
<p>for every section, she wrote the start time , the 5 min warning, and the end time on the chalk board. There was a clock right next to the board.</p>
<p>yet, I still managed to not finish a section ( math, omitted 2, although I feel really confident on the other answers)</p>
<p>A kid pulled the fire alarm during section 10, literally 1 minute before the whole SAT ordeal would finish. We still evacuated because of school policy, blah blah blah.</p>
<p>Least it's going to be hush and the school isn't planning on reporting the disruption. I think a lot of kids might have cheated outside during the wait too. Ah well.</p>
<p>My proctor was weird as hell. He was a teacher at the school. He did everything by the book and over-enunciated the directions. He actually took the time to rearrange our seats (we all just sat down like normal wherever we wanted) into alphabetical order. He also kept walking around in circles, and at one point stood next to me and started reading over my shoulder. Later, he sat down on the sofa. Once we were finished, he wouldnt let us leave until one by one, he individually collected EACH person's book and answer sheet alphabetically.</p>
<p>My procter was pretty good... He kind of forgot to give us warnings, but he wasn't yelling at everyone like the procter in the next room. He pretty much just read what he had to and got us started as quickly as possible.
I'll contribute to the string of fire alarm stories... the fire alarm started going off around the fifth section, I was sure they were going to make us leave... being a school. But they didn't. It was pretty nerve wracking though.
And then around the 8th section about three people in the roon seemed to come down with bad colds or allergies... the sniffing and coughing got really distracting after awhile.
Overall though I guess it was better then it could have been....</p>
<p>My first time taking it i took it at the high school right near my house. my proctor was hispanic, but had been naturalized, so he spoke english well but with a spanish accent. he was nice, and gave five minute warnings. the only problem was that the room was freezing and even though i brought a sweatshirt i was still pretty chilly.</p>
<p>today i decided to take it at my school thinking that the familiar setting would help. the room was a hospitable temperature, and i was with a proctor i had had as a student in 8th grade so i knew her. we were in this large room that is usually three separate rooms but they opened the dividers. the seats were comfortable with plenty of room. they posted the starting and ending times in various places around the room for each section, and there were several clocks so time management was easy. </p>
<p>so, yeah. no horror stories. hopefully the same will go for my scores... :)</p>
<p>it was so bad!!!
The proctor thought that I was letting someone cheat off my paper; she called the principal, but to my luck, he was lenient. he moved my desk into the middle of the room half way into the test.</p>
<p>what a waste of time. it was so embarresing to be moved like that in front of everyone.
I don't think they will do anything; if they willthey would have kicked me out of the test room.
The proctor was nice to me after that; she even helped me on one of the sentence completion questions (even though i never asked her for help.) :):):):)
Her watch was a little off and we got 3 extra minutes on all the sections. :):):):):):)</p>
<p>well, my center wasnt even ready by 8:15, and by the time we were done fillin in our names and stuff, it was like, 8:50. they didnt have a clock in the room, but i had my digital. but apperently the proctor's wasnt, coz he always called time either a minute early or a minute (or two) late. and he had a thick accent and it was kinda funny to hear him read out the instructions. i cudnt do the last question in abt 3 sections. i just hope i get a 2000+!</p>