For the roughly 93% of people scoring below 700 (see, e.g., https://secure-media.collegeboard.org/digitalServices/pdf/sat/sat-percentile-ranks-mathematics-2014.pdf), this probably won’t make too much difference. However, it does especially reduce the ability of the test to discern differences between students at the top end of the distribution (who only miss a handful of questions), and effectively adds a larger stochasticity (“luck”) factor. Consider the typical curve:
Just a guesstimate, but I suspect the curve for this is likely to look more like:
800 (0 wrong) … roughly 1.5%
770 (1 wrong) … roughly 1.5%
730 (2 wrong) … roughly 1.5%
710 (2 wrong/1 blank) … roughly 1.5%
700 (3 wrong) … roughly 1.5%
I think it’s going to be worse than for the regular math students. They are dropping 16 multiple choice questions.
So now instead of 10 questions out of 54 that are fill in the grid its 10 questions out of 38. In other words instead of fill in the grid being 18.5 % of the test it counts 26.3%… while some may argue that doesn’t make any difference I believe that quite a few students are more likely to figure out a multiple choice math problem correctly than a fill in the grid one.
I urge you all to discuss with your child/parent the possibility of canceling your score and contacting College Board to request a refund. Today, Wednesday at 11:59pm, is normally the latest possible time to cancel (not sure if they would extend this due to the circumstances). You would never get to see the scores, but if you feel strongly and don’t believe that the test reflects your capabilities, it’s probably your best option.
@MichiganGeorgia You don’t know how College Board will weight the different sections. I’m no statistics expert, but there must be a way to weight the responses in a way that makes it statistically valid. College Board also has to ensure that the students who took the June SAT are not getting an advantage over every other student who took the test, but they also don’t want to put these students at a disadvantage. One thing I will say is that it’s a good thing that it was a good thing it was at the end of the test because unexpected situations like that can really throw off a test taker.
With all due respect, it makes little sense to cancel a score. Does the amount of the refund matters that much that one would prefer to have to sit for a different test date? Look at the alternative: one gets a score that should for all intents and purposes be similar to the original one with all the sections. If the score happens to be lower than expected, and the school happens to one of the few that does not honor score choice, all one has to do it is add a little comment on the application with the terse note “Please disregard my June 2015 score as it was part of the botched test. Thanks”
I am afraid that people who continue to make hay from this situation are clearly misunderstanding the impact of the test or its inner workings. Most of the comments about possible negative impacts make no sense at all.
I’ve been tutoring the SATs for 10 years now. I think CB & ETS are underplaying this. The truth is that the test is constructed to be statistically valid and reliable at 9 sections plus 1 ‘experimental’ section they always toss. Now that they have 2 sections they’ve tossed, they are trying to salvage the situation by claiming it is still statistically valid and reliable. And what about the variable experimental section??? Will that be tossed as well (for a total of 3 sections)? I’ve seen nothing about that. But they can’t keep the experimental section either as it’s, well, experimental!
They are claiming that all is well and the test is still statistically valid and reliable, but as sungoose points out, they have to curve it so that it is comparable to all the other SATs (reliable), and they just can’t despite what they claim.
They say they can only so consumer confidence is kept up, but it’s just marketing. Yes, roughly it is the same. But the SATs are very high stakes, particularly if you are shooting for scholarships at the upper end. And it is precisely at the high end that the test will not be quite reliable and consistent. I do agree that folks should be entitled to a refund at least. If CB were really responsive, they would offer an additional test in July, free to June test takers if desired.
The bigger PR disaster is how close they are to changing over to the new test; the 2015 PSATs will be in the new format. (By the way, if you want to have a real conniption, look at the new SATs, or what little is out there. As a tutor, I don’t really know what to advise my students. I’d almost say to focus on ACT unless you’re at the upper 5% and have a chance to get that NMF.)
I wish the situation were different. Talk about having us by the … The fact that these tests are so high stakes makes this situation - testing run by only two big players, one of this (CB, ETS) which has been used to being a defacto monopoly for a long time - so stressful and egregious. You study and pay for the SATs and they make this mistake and then try to duck out of being accountable. People wouldn’t be so crazy if college weren’t both so ridiculously competitive and so ridiculously expensive. For many people (including my kids), high SAT scores is the gateway into higher ranked colleges and, even more importantly, can translate into literally tens of thousands of dollars in scholarships, even full rides. This is really why so many people tear out their hair. And I don’t see it getting better any time soon.
Isn’t CollegeBoard a non-profit? Why is it so concerned about the money, when it shouldn’t be attempting to be maximizing profits, but instead offering quality service? I am sure CB is more than financially stable to survive giving a retest. There should be a petition to get rid of CB’s non-profit status, like what happened with the NFL.
@JustOneDad CollegeBoard loses it’s tax-exemption status, thus more taxes for the government to collect, possibly lowering defecit/money to fund government education programs/less of a likelihood for American citizens to have taxes raised on them.
This is what the CB needs to do from a PR standpoint: Release the June scores the way they are going to right now, but offer anybody who felt like the screw-up affected them negatively a choice to take a redo test given in July for free and that score will replace the June score.
I’d never cancel a score, because I know of no college that would consider a student’s lowest scores, and who knows, if the student does retake, they might not do better. Let alone that colleges are by now fully aware of this problem.
A quick check of my son’s two detailed SAT reports shows the same score for one more question right and one more wrong for two different sittings. They want to make sure each sitting is graded the same, and that the “same level of knowledge is represented by the same score”: https://sat.collegeboard.org/scores/how-sat-is-scored
I also took the June 6th SAT, and I’m so annoyed! I actually thought I was going to score pretty well (this was my first time). It also upsets me that the next SAT is in October! Seniors have enough to worry about in the fall, (applying to colleges), so I think an SAT over the summer would be wonderful.
I talked to an admissions officer, and he said that colleges are communicating with Collegeboard to determine how to interpret the June 6th SAT scores. In other words, this test is likely to be viewed differently by colleges than SATs from other dates, which can put kids at a disadvantage! Test takers may suffer consequences for Collegeboard’s mistake, and this is simply ridiculous!
@greek786 What’s ridiculous is you jumping to conclusions based on one person reporting that “colleges are communicating with CB” - that absolutely doesn’t support your conclusion at all. Of course there is going to communication; the important part is the content of that communication, about which you know nothing.
With Superscoring and Scorechoice and all the rest, there is no way CB would be releasing the scores if they had to send secret instructions to colleges about how to interpret them.
I don’t have a dog in this race but, in my opinion, when a company screws something up, they should compensate the consumer–either refund money for this test, or offer a free test in the future. I’m a college counselor, so I understand there is more than money involved, but College Board should be held accountable for their mistake.
@BenzeneRings while I agree that CollegeBoard is not a non-profit by any stretch of the term, I feel like the revocation of the tax-exempt status is not the primary goal. If College Board has to pay taxes, they won’t let it cut their profits, they’ll just put the costs on students and families.
I am not trying to minimize the angst of those sitting in an uncertain position as they wait on scores. But, it seems to me the CollegeBoard error hurts the elite students competing against the June 6 test takers for college spots next year the most. Part of the test is endurance and keeping everything on track for the entire tests. So, making an 800 requires continued concentration for the entire exam and not making any mistakes. For those students who faltered in the last two sections on the June 6 test, those errors are wiped out.
Those taking the June 6 test get a free shot - you either keep the shorter test results or blame it on the SAT’s error and get your money back.
I took the test and I didn’t notice running out of time on anything?? Except for one section of math…let’s just hope that’s the one that’s crossed out cos I sucked at it. Lol.