…for reading and writing. He realized this at the end of the test and told the teacher. She looked it up in the manual (hard to believe there are enough goofballs like S to have a procedure for this) and she put a postit on the book saying “answers in book” and said it would be graded. So his scores are up and the score report shows he omitted every question in both sections and got the minimum 160. So it’s now verified you get a 160 just for writing your name, because that’s all S2 had for those 2 sections. Fortunately he’s a sophomore, but AAAAAACK. I emailed CB explaining and asking if we’d get a revised score report later. Just had to vent…this kid has taken standardized tests since 2nd grade. The brain totally checked out in October for a very important 2 hours. So anyone reading this can feel better about their own noodle-headed offspring…I think I need to have a primal scream somewhere…
Totally don’t worry about it. Just use the answers to see what sections he needs to focus on for next year, when it counts for national merit purposes. Sophomore year is the practice round.
Maybe when you get the packet back your kid can go through the test again and try to recall what answers he picked the first time and then score it yourself. Its a lot of extra work, may be worth it or not depending on how badly you wanted the scores.
I did email CB and asked about the situation. We’ll see if they ever respond in a meaningful way.
Oh, dear… your son is probably embarrassed, too. Agree that there are no real consequences, though, since he is a soph. That is what practice is for, I guess.
How did he do on the math section?
Not great–570—looks like he ran out of time because he missed the last bunch all in a row. He is really not a math kid, though, and had only a quarter of Geo and Alg II so I was kind of okay with that. They said last week it would be elevated because the person I talked to had not heard of such a procedure. Have yet to hear back.
You son’s test will probably pulled next year for review since his score will go up so much. 
Kidding… hopefully that doesn’t happen.
We’ve all had a share of screwups. Count your lucky stars that it happened in sophomore year. I’ll bet he bubbles the answer sheet next year…
I think this one is now part of family lore…Did I mention this is the third time he has taken the PSAT? Our school system offers it starting in 8th grade. And this is also why my kids test early and often, to get used to the test. Never occurred to me about a score rise investigation! We’ll see if they ever respond. I may follow up in a week or so.
My junior daughter was mortified that she mis-bubbled one of her PSAT sections this year - resulting in 9 missed questions each one off from the correct answer below. This closed her out of NMS consideration (she missed an additional 3 questions) and she was so embarrassed when the GC called her in to go over it with her. They were a little shocked as well - especially since these kids have been taking standardized tests since 3rd grade.
You are lucky that he is only in 10th. We told D that it was a good learning experience for the real SATs & ACT but it still stinks.
I’m pretty sure my D3 mis-bubbled the math section of her first ACT. It was bizarre because all of a sudden she missed a group of 10 in a row. She still can’t explain what happened. But stuff like this DOES happen. Practice helps, of course, but so does another few months of growth.
I remember bubbling the wrong section on a standardized test in 5th grade. The teacher just let me copy my answers into the correct section later on. I didn’t have the test book or anything so couldn’t really change my answers (that thought hadn’t occurred to me either). In those days these things weren’t such a big deal - standardized tests were new at the time. I was found to be reading at the 11th grade level. All I remember thinking is that 11th graders must really be dumb LOL.
DS did the same in his 6th or 7th grade EXPLORE test for talent search program. He received “0” point out of 25 in math. He had gotten 24 out 25 in math a few months before, on the same test.