This is a really long post, sorry, I always write more than I probably need to. Here’s a TL;DR:
I’m almost positive my proctor didn’t give the 5 minute warning (as required by SAT) during a Math section and because I thought I still had at least 5 minutes left, I wasn’t working at super speed to finish my last problem. I had the final step of solving the problem written in my booklet and I figured out the answer in my head, but as I was reviewing the answers to see which letter to mark, the time was called and I was confused because I never remembered hearing the warning while all of the other ones hit me like a brick. Also, there was no easily visible clock for me to keep track of how much time was left. Is there any way to recoup that last answer if I contact CollegeBoard about it or should I just forget about it?
I took today’s SAT which, while I was incredibly nervous for it and was trying to find any reason not to take the long drive to my center, it was pretty much a breeze for me. I had extra time after almost every section to double check my answers and luckily caught quite a few tricky SAT wordings and corrected my answers. I ended up running out of time during the second Math section and one of the Critical Reading sections, but the thing with the Math section (25 mins) is that I’m almost positive that the proctor never gave us a 5 minute warning. I noticed every other warning because I either immediately thought to myself “No thinking time just process process process” or “Cool, I’ll have plenty of time to check my answers”. I was even so startled by the warnings in the last three tests that I jumped in my seat because I was so focused (they were the two 20 minute and the 10 minute sections so I knew I didn’t have a second to waste) and the room was 100% silent. Anyway, I was finishing the last Math question that I skipped to get back to at the end. The way that it was worded really threw me off and after thinking about it for ~20 seconds when I first got to it, I couldn’t put the pieces together so I skipped it. When I got back to it, I realized I completely overthought it and it ended up a lot simpler than I thought. I picked some random integers for the situation, wrote out the math, and I realized what the answer was to the actual problem. And then time was called. I was really, really startled because I thought I still had 5+ minutes left.
If I contacted SAT/CollegeBoard about it would they do anything? I stupidly forgot to ask one of the other students in the room because our breaks were only 5 minutes and I was more focused on making sure I took a bathroom break during each one (thank god for the closer spaced SAT breaks, my first ACT was a horror story). I had the example problem written below the question with my example answer showing basically the final step before getting to the actual answer, but I didn’t have time to write the actual answer (obviously I would’ve marked it on my answer sheet before writing it in the test book). Also, I know that I could’ve bought a watch to bring so I could do time management myself, but I expected there to be a clock in the room. And there was, but it was on the right side of the room, my seat was the furthest right seat, and the clock was behind me. I tried looking for the clock when I first got the room and when I finally found it, I realized that I’d have to turn my neck, turn my body, look up, try to get an accurate reading from the angle I was at, and it would simply take too much time out of the already short test sections. Not that their procedures are the same but both ACTs I’ve taken had a clock at the front of the room and the proctor wrote the start and stop times on the board, so a quick glance up was obviously a lot easier than how it was today.
I mean, I would feel bad if the proctor got in trouble for it because they were really nice and it was an honest mistake, and even I recognize that I sound whiny/dramatic, but the confidence I feel about the overall test could easily backfire (happened with my second ACT, got the same 31 as the first one but I felt a lot better about it the second time) and I want a score as high as possible to send to Northwestern since I was deferred. I’m 99% positive that they gave no 5 minute warning because I was well aware of it every other time and I was maybe 10 feet from their desk.
I read somewhere that the warnings are more of a courtesy to the students than a requirement, but according to this staff guide from CB (albeit it’s for the 2013-14 cycle, but I doubt they’d change the rules for the next year) — http://www.sde.idaho.gov/site/assessment/docs/SAT/SAT%20SCHOOL%20DAY%20TESTING%20MANUAL%202013-14.pdf — it is a requirement to call the warning. Also, if you go to page 15, it mentions how not being given a warning is a common student complaint.
I recognize that I was still given the full 25 minutes for the section, but if CB makes the time warning mandatory, even they must agree that it helps students by giving the pressure needed to finish as many remaining questions as possible. The only thing I’m worried about is if I contacted CB about it, would the results come too late for the schools I’ve applied to to be considered?