SAT Nightmare --

<p>For any of you who are upset with your scores or had a bad experience with collegeboard, let me offer this story to you --</p>

<p>So I go online to view my SAT scores from the March 2005 test, and I wasn't too happy with what I saw. My writing was significantly lower than my potential and when I looked further, my essay score -- was a 0. I was stunned. I wrote one of the most coherent and profound essays I've ever written on The Crucibe by Arthur Miller and A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt. I knew, at the least, if the teachers absolutely HATED the essay, it still would have received a 2. I was soo confused, that I called collegeboard, and got on the phone with some woman who knew NOTHING about the test, who probably didn't even take the test in her lifetime but was hired to answer phones for the company. What does she tell me? "You didn't hand the essay in..." Of course I did!! "Let me check with my supervisor..." So I wait 5 minutes, she comes back on the phone - "You wrote extremely off-topic" --- NO I DIDN'T! -- "Let me check with my supervisor..." -- I wait another 5 minutes -- "We seemed to have misplaced your essay...But we're still in the process of grading papers so -- It might still be there waiting to be graded..." -- Wonderful! No one can find my essay, and I only had HALF of my grade online because they never finished grading it! They gave me, my parents, and my tutor a heart attack!! Hopefully my FULL scores will be on the site soon, but until then, I can only say -- Thanks Collegeboard!!</p>

<p>Wow. Glad that didn't happen to me.</p>

<p>Wow, that happened to someone I know as well. I kinda thought he had gotten a really bad Writing score and was lying. Guess not.</p>

<p>wow, i'm sorry, hopefully your'll get your scores soon</p>

<p>Yeah man that must suck.
I hope everything turns out well.
Once, when I was taking my final Algebra I exam in 8th grade, we had taken the first half of the test.
And I know for a fact I missed 2 already and I knew exactly what I did wrong.
And the next day, the teacher hands everyone their test EXCEPT mine!
And this guy is a total neat freak, I mean, he really never loses anything.
I think it was a miracle from God to let me fix my answers, I'm serious.
Then he said, I'm so sorry, can you retake it?
And I acted all sad but inside I was ECSTATIC I could redo what I missed.
I re-did the first part, and then did the second part, and well I missed 1 question but it was a multiple-part question so he didn't count it wrong because he said I had the basic concept AND he was sorry that he lost my test!
SCORE!
So I got a 100. It was good that he lost it! I hope everything turns out well for you :)</p>

<p>it would be good if MattyB's situation turned out like yours, however, we're forgetting that the collegeboard is not as nice, nor are they as lenient as your teacher. all in all...i still don't udnerstand how they could be a 'non-for-profit' organization.</p>

<p>No, the CB is not at all lenient.</p>

<p>Here's an interesting story...One of my students worked really hard to get ready for the old SAT II Writing tests. She took it and felt great about it. Strange thing was, the proctors didn't collect all the test booklets after the test, only the answer sheets. They are supposed to do a check to make sure they have everything before they let students out of the room. They didn't. My student inadvertently took her booklet with her.</p>

<p>She got a call about 15 minutes later (on her cell phone) from the school. She immediately turned around and went back to school and returned the test. No problem, right? Wrong.</p>

<p>ETS said they wouldn't even score her test. They started a criminal investigation of her. Now maybe she was a bit scatterbrained that day. Maybe she should have known better than to walk out with the booklet, but her school was responsible for that and they messed up.</p>

<p>After doing a little snooping, we discovered that the school in question had a lot of problems that day. They found two or three other SAT II booklets on campus, in bathrooms, etc. Frankly, they just dropped the ball. Still, my student couldn't get her test scored.</p>

<p>In fact, it took three months, legal advice, intense pressure on the school to take the blame and put pressure on ETS...and they finally scored her test. She got a 760, up 120 points from her previous test. Happy ending, yes, but what a stressful headache...and if her parents hadn't been big donors to the school (and threatened to withdraw their support) I don't think the ending would have been so happy.</p>

<p>So, ETS totally sucks. And MattyB, I certainly hope your essay gets found and scored. If not, send me a private message and I'll see if I can put you in touch with someone who specializes in test-taker advocacy...</p>

<p>Wow, pete. I'm so sorry for your student. At least it ended in a happy ending. I'm surprised College Board actually kept her answers for that long.</p>

<p>so heres the deal </p>

<p>my proctor never specified whether the essay should be done in pen or pencil --- so i, naturally on every essay i've ever done - used pen AND OF COURSE the scanning of the essay only registered in pencil -- this happened to a lot of people and CB freaked out and said ok -- we'll give u the benefit of the doubt but we're gonna have to put better directions on the test next time ---</p>

<p>so basically i have to wait 3 weeks for someone else to grade my essay --- wonderful!!</p>

<p>MattyB, I'm in the same situation. It sucks. Do we really have to wait THREE weeks to find out the essay score?</p>

<p>Why not just take the essay in pencil since the rest of the test is in pencil, why would you assume the essay is different? just wondering.</p>

<p>yes -- three weeks is what they told me </p>

<p>and look.... I took the English regents in pen, the global history regents in pen, earth science, chem and bio --- basically it was just natural for me to write all long responses in pen --- i wrote in pen for my tutor and, although i know its a different environment - nothing was said to me regarding "make sure you use a pencil for the actual test"
i would assume if CB was smart, they would have directions AT LEAST for proctors to tell students to use pen -- and whenever you write an essay, isn't the natural inclination to pick up a pen sooner than a pencil... so those are my reasons --- also, it was my first SAT test, i'm sure I was a little nervous and had I taken an extra second to think I may have picked up my pencil, but whatever -- maybe its partly my fault but that doesnt take away the fact that I'm probably gonna get my MAY scores SOONER than my March scores -- oo welll!</p>