My daughter signed up for the August 25 SAT with essay ages ago. In the meantime, colleges she is interested in dropped the essay requirement so she is no longer interested in taking the essay. Of course, the deadline for switching test type via your College Board account has already passed. We see on the College Board website that it MAY be possible to switch on test day, “but it’s up to the test center coordinator and depends on whether they have enough materials, space, and staff.” Has anyone had any experience with this? How likely is it to be able to switch on test date? She will go to the test center early, but is there anything else she can do to maximize her chances?
We were hoping that it was possible to just not take the essay (similar to subject SATs - if you sign up for three but only decide to take one or two, you just don’t take the rest - no changes to your registration needed), but it looks like the SAT with/without essay is not set up in the same way.
I am not sure that asking for past experiences will be beneficial here. The success rate in switching in the past was high, IMO. But I anticipate that many many students are going to try to switch this time around because so many colleges have dropped the essay requirement in recent weeks. If they don’t have enough booklets, then they don’t have enough booklets.
Other the being first in line on Saturday, I’m not sure what else to suggest.
@skieurope - thank you! This makes sense. The reason I am asking for past experiences is that my daughter would like to know as much as possible about what to expect when trying to switch. The fewer surprises, the easier it will be for her to keep her focus for the test. So even if it is unlikely that she’ll be able to switch, it would still be very helpful to know more about how this works.
Do tests centers typically have extra booklets on hand? Is this standard process?
@skieurope Again, this is very helpful for understanding what to expect. So she will probably have to wait until the end of check-in and then if someone does not show up she can get their spot?
Again, this will probably be a learning experience for everyone. In the past, when it was just a few students who wanted to switch, usually they’d check-in, tell the person at check-in that they wanted to switch tests, and were then simply directed to room 201 instead of 202, since there were always a few extra booklets. Whether the CB has anticipated a deluge of changes for this weekend and/or given direction on how test sites should handle is something I don’t know.
OP,
We are in exactly the same boat here. And thank you @skieurope for letting me understand the “enough material/space” part. We have asked DS to be prepared to just go through the essay part if it comes to that.
Well, after spending all day yesterday reviewing for the essay, my daughter was confident enough that she decided to just go ahead and write the essay. However, she said that if she had wanted to switch, she would definitely have been able to. There was a booklet for SAT (common to SAT and SAT+essay), plus a separate booklet for the essay. So switching TO the essay could have been an issue due to not enough materials, but not the other way around.
We decided to opt out and at the testing place we just told one proctor his request and they said he just needs to go to a different classroom. DS said there were lots of kids opt out. Interestingly, he had to do a math section V, which is very simple math for 20 min, is it for kids who opt out?
@makemesmart This must have been the experimental section that the College Board uses to test items for future exams. “To allow for pretesting, some students taking the SAT with no Essay will take a fifth, 20-minute section.”