The SAT's 5-Minute Mess-Up

Either way, I’m going to be pretty annoyed if the curve is messed up now. I was hoping to do really welll… what if those two sections are the sections I did well on? :\ Collegeboard should refund us.

@craigsl Except that it’s not the last two sections.

After a misprint in test booklets about the time allotted for taking part of the SAT earlier this month, the College Board said on Monday that it would not score two sections of the exam, and would waive its fees for students who wanted to take the test again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/16/education/after-sat-misprint-two-sections-wont-be-scored.html

No extra test dates, next sitting in October.

Hi Everyone, did the time error affect students in Canada?

^No

@skieurope ,thanks for your quick reply. Our SAT preparation school called the Collegeboard last week. They were told that both Canada and US have used the same printing of SAT exam. I’m a bit confused.

Really?

Q: Who does this affect?
All students who took the SAT on June 6 in the United States are affected. This does not affect students who took the SAT on Sunday, June 7, or any SAT Subject Test offered that day.

https://lp.collegeboard.org/information-regarding-the-saturday-june-6-sat-administration

To be honest, I hated my performance during the double reading section of the SAT, so I’m glad this happened because my reading score would have seriously f-ed up.

Guys, does anyone know if this error affects international students as well? I took the test on June 6 in Romania. I guess it shouldn’t, right? But after I saw what @pigmom said about US and Canada using the same printing I’m a bit worried. (I don’t really remember what was written in the test booklet, but we had 20 minutes for both section 8 and 9.)

@an1620 From the CB website:

Q: Who does this affect?
All students who took the SAT on June 6 in the United States are affected.

I think people are over reacting, Its not like the people taking the test that day,(as myself) should have that 5 extra minutes, as it was ment to be a 20 min section. The students taking the test should have finished the section, and the test should be graded as is.

My daughter did an enormous amount of test prep for her second SAT, which was unfortunately the June 6th debacle. She was frustrated by all of the confusion with the administration of the test, but even more frustrated when told that the 2 sections would be invalid because she felt that she had done very well on those sections. The CB can spin it all they want, but after 7 - 8 full practice tests leading up to this date, I can attest that her performance was not consistent across sections on the practice tests - there were some she scored well on and some she did not do as well. If it was truly consistent, then her results should be consistent across sections. We just received the scores this morning and were very disappointed. Although they came up, it was only a minimal increase (+50 in CR, +10 in M). The CB is offering to waive the fee for Oct (“for students who let us know that their testing experience was negatively affected by the printing error”) and she will definitely retake it (not sure what they mean by “for students who let us know,” but we have certainly let them know!)

Wonder how people feel about the scores reported today from the June 6th SAT “mistake” test. Think they are accurate or unusually low? I ask because my son’s scores dropped dramatically in CR and Math, while writing - which I believe was unaffected by the mistake, went up. His trend lines over the last 2 tests have been up so this is definitely an anomaly. Will def be retaking in Oct.

My daughter said on test day that her best math section was section 8, and that she struggled with one of the earlier sections. This is typical for her last SAT and her practice tests - she tends to so really well on one section and struggles on another. Her English/Writing are great so she only took June 6 for math. She went down 60 points, and knows for sure it’s because they tossed the section on which she did the best. No way this was a fair measure. I called SAT on June 9th and told them this is exactly how her test was going to score. To make it even worse, I decided not to have the scores sent, and confirmed with the SAT agent that I had deselected the score reporting service for this test. They sent the awful scores anyway. Why can’t they do their job?

That’s interesting. My son walked out of the test saying he “killed” the math section and yet he went down by 50 points! It makes no sense since he was the most prepped for this test. His latest math score is now exactly the same as his first SAT six months ago - cannot be accurate. The College Board is a terribly run organization with little need for accountability since it’s a monopoly. Very frustrating.

June was my fourth test, and it was supposed to be my final shot. All of my scores stayed the same except for a 10 point increase in writing, which I didn’t even really need. I was expected at least a 20 point jump in math at the very minimum, but my score didn’t change. I’m extremely disappointed as now I will probably be testing in October, which messes up subject test timing. Although I wouldn’t be surprised if I made a few math mistakes, I felt so confident after the test and I wouldn’t be surprised if the poor curve has to do with the elimination of the sections.

I feel like the effect of the two removed sections is being exaggerated quite a bit. While many people got lower scores than they expected, that happens every time. I’m sure some people’s scores have benefited from the error as well. In any case, it’s impossible to say with certainty that your score would have been significantly different without the elimination of the two sections. College Board’s mistake just makes for a convenient scapegoat.

Honestly, complaining about it isn’t going to do anything. If you’re unsatisfied with your score, just retake it in October for free.

By total score increased by 230 points so uh…

mine increased by 190

I think it could have increased more if CB didn’t toss out those 2 sections

I agree with Columbus88, NJFL123, and NJFabFour.

I got a 730 on Critical Reading, even though on all practice tests I took I never got anything above a 650 (although I shouldn’t be complaining), a 690 on Writing, which matched my practice tests average, and a 690 on math, which really pisses me off!!! I had gotten 800’s on at least 3 math practice tests a month before I took the legit test, with an average of 750. I definitely blame their stupid screw up; they must have eliminated a math section and then used some stupid curve that failed to make up for the eliminated section/disadvantage! I don’t even know how they could make such a dumb mistake, wouldn’t every single employee of the college board who works on making the SAT know that the 8th and 9th sections are always 20 minutes long??? Quite an idiotic and unexcusable printing error of the highest idiocy, especially when considering how the students taking the test knew better!! This is as stupid as the infamous “talking pineapple” question!!!