<p>Today, my daughter took her last SAT I test. She will also be taking the SAT II in January.
After she came home from the test today, she was pretty upset about the test. She said that the proctor had made a good amount of racket during the test, allowed two different people to exit the room while the test was taking place (at different times) (she also said that because they had to walk around the room to the door, she somewhat felt like they may have been looking at her test and others), answered questions from students who raised their hand during the test, and that a woman kept coming to the door to communicate with the proctor, and because the door was locked, it made a much louder noise. She said the woman came to the room and did that around 4 times while the test was in place, not during breaks. And the last problem was that there was no clock. The proctor said that they will just have to go by her wrist watch...the watch that is on the proctors wrist, available for only her. Because of all that, it made her lose focus and break concentration...so much that she left 10 blank on a 20question math section, and 6 total on the other two math sections and do horrible on the CR sections.</p>
<p>She confirmed numerous times that she KNOWS that, with everything that took place during the test, it will have a major negative impact on her scores. What we had planned to do was submit her applications by the end of this month, right after the results come back from today's testing, and just go ahead and write down the test date and subjects that will be taken on Jan. 26. Now, after being informed of what took place today at the test center, we are thinking about filing a test center complaint. </p>
<p>The main question is: What would happen once complaints such as these are filed? She just really needed the scores from today to hopefully achieve her goal of a superscore of 2000+. Would it be possible for CB to administer another SAT this month to where she would be able to receive her scores and send them by the deadline for college apps? Is it worth it?</p>
<p>You can file a complaint, but I’m pretty sure they won’t write and administer a new test specifically for her. The best you could expect, assuming they think the complaint is valid once investigated, is a free retake at the next available date in January.</p>
<p>If they agree this is a valid complaint, and the site was breached, wouldn’t they toss ALL of the tests administered that day at that site…not
just the OP’s daughters test?</p>
<p>OP - sorry to go off topic but is she normally a ‘slow’ test taker? I don’t mean this in a negative way… I only ask because I remember taking the SAT and finishing every section with enough time that I could go back to the beginning, review every single question again in the section, and still have time left before moving on to the next section… But I’ve always been a quick tester who finishes well before the rest of the class and I would say I am someone who is easily distracted by things (drive my sister crazy with this!)… I don’t mean this in a negative way… some of the people that take the longest on tests got the highest grades in my classes… </p>
<p>I guess what I mean is leaving half of a section blank just seems extreme considering how much time (to me) you actually get for each section. I obviously don’t know if that’s what the college board would say but I would think it’s a possibility.</p>
<p>@fendergirl,
She is somewhat of a perfectionist, wanting things to be right and correct, but she does know when to just move on to the next problem. That being said, she omitted a total of 3 back from the May test and around 5 from the November one. I was shocked about the 10 omitted too, making the total omitted just for math 16. </p>
<p>@Classof2015,
Did your daughter get questioned for that note by colleges or did they not notice it?</p>
<p>Would they need complaints from others that were in the room too in order to, I guess, “verify” what happened and possibly change something? </p>
<p>Also, if we were to file a complaint and state that two test takers had left the room (without mentioning that she felt as if they may have been viewing other tests and answers in passing), would that be subject to a reporting of suspected cheating? </p>
<p>She wasn’t sure where the two test takers went, but assuming that it was to the restroom, is that even allowed during the test?</p>
<p>As she really has no idea if anyone actually was cheating, why is that an issue here? It is not going to improve her score.</p>
<p>I have no problems with reporting when there is good evidence that cheating has taken place. But someone walking out of the room so she thinks they may have been cheating off her seems like a huge stretch to me. It doesn’t seem very likely someone could cheat that way unless they came and stood right by her.</p>
<p>I wonder if the student took a lot of practice tests?
You can rehearse for the SAT as you would for a play, music recital, athletic competition, or any other important performance. If your performance on the SAT is very important to you (scholarship or admission depends on a certain score) you will not enter the test center unprepared.
The idea is to be so familiar with the test that little things will not break your concentration.
I’m not saying it was right for proctor to make noise, but if a student has rehearsed thoroughly for this “performance,” small unexpected interruptions should not throw her off.
If your D re-takes the SAT, make sure she is well prepared, and brings her own wristwatch.</p>
<p>I think it’s a valid complaint if what she said is true.
However, I think the complaint may not help much. Is this her 3rd SAT I test? Is there a wide score increase/decrease between her May and November test? She may consider cancelling today’s test.</p>
<p>Honestly, I thought it was a bit exaggerated, maybe a little paranoid about that part too.</p>
<p>She ordered 5 prep books for the SAT and received a tutor session by the Princeton Review (which didn’t help her at all). I’m not sure if she took the practice tests section by section or as a whole, but the scores she was getting were all 1800+ in the actual CB prep book. When she first took the SAT back in May without any prep, her scores were 1480 with Writing being the highest. Another factor that I think may have caused her to break focus easily is being nervous about this being her last time taking it. She referenced it many times as her “last shot.” It wasn’t until about 3 weeks ago when she really sat down and studied the material and had her practice test scores go from 1500 to a 1720 at the least.</p>
<p>Yes, this would count as her third time taking it. The May total was 1480 and she will get the November scores back on Tuesday. Hurricane Sandy had caused the original November test date and score release time to be delayed by two weeks. She did consider cancelling today’s scores, but assuming that she would need them to superscore with the November ones, she has put that thought off onto the backburner or as a last option and wanted me to consider filing a complaint with her to see if CB would take action.</p>
<p>Jolly, I would also have a talk with her about the importance of blocking things out and getting back on task in the future. For me at least, a day doesn’t go by at work where I’m trying to accomplish things that may or may not have a deadline and at the same time getting bombarded with IM’s, questions, and phone calls about various issues. You need to be able to handle a multitude of things and still get your work done ‘on time’… you know? I’m also a perfectionist when it comes to my work so I know how hard it is to get it squared away correctly around all of those ‘distractions’.</p>
<p>OP,
You can complain, but I doubt much will come of it.</p>
<p>Students have always been allowed to leave the room to go to the bathroom or get a drink of water…it’s just their own scores they may be hurting by sacrificing the time they have available to complete the test.</p>
<p>As far as the students who are walking out looking at other’s answerr—really? As they are walking they can see well enough to see what question/ which answer circle is filled out? And know if the answer is right? This is your daughter’s perfectionist paranoia speaking here.</p>
<p>As far as the timing issue–your daughter should have worn a good old fashioned watch. My boys always wore an inexpensive wristwatch because they didn’t expect the testing rooms to have clocks–their high school did not have clocks in any of the classrooms, and they did not want to rely on the proctor calling out times–they wanted to be able to set their own paces.</p>
<p>If your daughter does not have confidence in her scores, she should cancel them and go with what scores she already has. As others have suggested, she might do best applying to test-optional schools.</p>
<p>She might want to work on concentration strategies as part of her preparation for college. Exams are often two to three hours long, with no break between sections on a test, and there can be some activity which might be disruptive to her.</p>
<p>(1) The disruption caused by the proctor talking during the test is reportable - and should be reported;
(2) Remedies will include (a) a warning to the school that administered the test and (b) a possible offer to retake the test at the next scheduled administration (January);
(3) No matter how bad the disturbance was, the OP’s daughter will not be offered the opportunity for a “retake” later this month.</p>
<p>To the best of my knowledge, CB does not require that there be a functioning wall clock in the room where a test is administered and there is, for what should be obvious reasons, no rule that a test taker cannot leave the room during the test.</p>
<p>I’m wondering if the Op’s D has test anxiety in other settings? Both a good friend of mine and my sister had terrible test anxiety (the friend, just plain anxiety about many things, in fact), and this got in the way of any standardized testing going well. The really anxious friend got counseling and tutoring and LOTS of practice tests, and finally passed her GED and has no aced her placement tests in her CC program.</p>
<p>My sister just took a prep class and many practice tests-this worked for her, as did learning how to work with her dyslexia. When she was in school way back when they didn’t recognize the problem and just assumed she was stupid. Called her that too. She’s doing fine now, but it took many years to get to that point.</p>
<p>OP, does your D have any such issues? Is she anxious about other things or all testing? This would be important to learn so she can get help.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t report it because there’s a risk that the College Board might invalidate the scores of everyone in the room – including students who needed this test to complete their applications for college.</p>
<p>If it were a spring test, things would be different because it’s juniors who take the test in the spring, and they have additional opportunities to take it later. But for some seniors, the December test date is the last one available to them, or they have a conflict with the January test date, or they need to take the SAT in either December or January and SAT Subject Tests on the other date.</p>
<p>If this student feels that her scores from this test do not reflect her best performance, she can cancel them. But other students in the room may want the opportunity to make a different choice – and the College Board might take that choice away from them.</p>
<p>I agree if the disruption was against the testing rules it can be reported so the place of testing can be warned. I also think it would be a good idea to look at her college list and make sure she needs all these standardized tests. Distractions unfortunately are common in education, workplace, and any number of situations so if you feel she has an “extreme” or debilitating reaction while she is concentrating you might want to find out of there is anything that can help her. As a parent I would NOT focus on HER test scores if this was my student…work with what she has and is getting. So with regard to retesting, keeping track of how many questions were left unfinished and such, I think you need to maybe step back to help your D get perspective on standardized testing.</p>
<p>I’d go with momofthreeboys - CB isn’t going to “invalidate the scores of everyone in the room” simply because of the disruption caused by the proctor. They will, instead, follow up with the test administrator.</p>
<p>As for the allegation of cheating, that’s utterly unsubstantiated and shouldn’t be reported. If, in fact, there was a legitimate claim of cheating, that could delay the release of scores, but since that doesn’t appear to be the case here, that’s a can of worms that does not need to be opened.</p>
<p>The reality is that administration of standardized tests is often less than ideal. If a PSAT is disrupted, the students are out of luck - you only get one shot at it. With the SAT, you at least have the option of taking the test again. But that only works if you take the SAT as far ahead of time as possible. Taking the test December of senior year is rarely a good plan - you just never know what what might, as in this case, go wrong.</p>