<p>One thing that's perplexed me is why the college board takes so long to scoring tests. Considering the vast number of test takers(a million or more per year?), I would think that the college board would have heavily invested in efficent grading equipment.</p>
<p>The subject tests, which are all multiple choice, can easily be graded by a computer. Maybe they might want to score the test on two seperate dates to ensure the accuracy, but that can be done in two days after the tests have been recieved.</p>
<p>The essay on the sat1 is relatively easy to grade(most graders spend 2 minutes? per essay), so this should not be a bottleneck.</p>
<p>Does anyone have any insight as to why it takes 3 weeks to score a multiple choice test with a 2-minute-to-grade essay?</p>
<p>Okay, so let's say that the place at which you took the SAT sends the answer booklets to the College Board by the Tuesday after the testing date. The College Board would probably receive the exams for all of the US test-takers by the following Monday, which means that already a week has passed. Now, consider the large amount of international students who also take the test. Let's say that their answer booklets are received by the second Thursday after the testing date. Assuming it takes 4 days to score the tests of each batch of test-takers (international and US), the scoring should be finished by around the third Wednesday after the testing date. So, add about 24 hours to that for all the scores to be put online, and you have three weeks. </p>
<p>There is clearly a lot of room for improvement, but I still think it's reasonable. It's not like you need your scores immediately (except if you're a senior).</p>
<p>they have to ship it by truck from every place in the US (and international) to new jersey, then they have to hand feed in each test, so yea it'll take a while</p>
<p>what do u guys think a 10 on the essay and missing 5 will be? as opposed to missing 5 and getting an 11?</p>
<p>I understand the international issue, but why doesn't the college board just release scores as they become availible(maybe send you an email saying that your scores are availible)? It seems so pointless to hold up all the scores just because the international scores arrive late.</p>
<p>Also, doesn't it seem pointless and inefficent to grade <em>all</em> tests in new jersey? It seems that grading would be more efficent if the college board had test processing centers on the west, central, and east coasts, as well as some international test processing centers.</p>
<p>What's the problem with waiting 3 weeks?
It's not like that you benefit from knowing your scores earlier.
Plus, the consequences of a faster scoring would be higher costs (new processing centers, more essay graders, etc.)
Releasing scores when they are available is unfair. (And not possible because they have to calculate the curve based on all raw scores)</p>
<p>^Curves are pre-determined.</p>
<p>Although it is clearly flawed to have only one location at which tests are scored, the College Board has no reason to change the situation, because there probably aren't many people who have complained. Three weeks is a reasonable amount of time. </p>
<p>Releasing scores as they become available could potentially cause a lot of scores to come out much later than they should. It would lead to a lot of disorganization. Currently, they probably get scores ready in discreet stages, but if they didn't, they could easily lose a bunch of tests, and many complications could arise.</p>