June 6th SAT again

[emzhengjiu]

I checked the SAT website today for any updates for the June 6th testing situation.  The College Board will waive the fee for the October test date for students who feel they were affected negatively by the timing issues.  Not ideal, but as fair as it can be.

 

I was happy originally to hear that the scores would be considered valid, but my daughter is upset because she feels she did well on the two 20 minute sections.  I emailed the College Board today to ask about the fee waiver.  We'll see what they say.  

[emzhengjiu]

This is the link; hope it works.

 

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

[emzhengjiu]

Don't bother emailing.  They'll send you a message to call 866-756-7346 option 8 on the automated system.  According to the agent who talked with me, we can request a waiver for the Oct. test fee through June 30th.  However, if you ask for a waiver, the scores from the June 6th test will not be made available.  I expected as much since that would be fair.  

 

My daughter is out of town this week so I'll take with her when she returns.  I suspect she'll want to see the June 6th test scores anyway.  So likely no waiver for us.

[goldberry]

I wasn't part of this, but that seems unfair.  There should be a retake option.

[plansrme]

I still think this is unfair.  The College Board should just offer a retest, for free, with no strings or conditions.  Moreover, they also should offer another testing date in July or August, at least for rising seniors, as they are the ones for whom an October test date might not be soon enough.  My rising senior is among those affected.  She has not taken an SAT since her freshman year.  We knew she would have to take one after the PSAT in October, but as she was a little distracted with knee surgery in January, and with finals and AP exams, that only left her a couple options, one of which was June 6.  Ugh.  I hate the College Board.  She is keeping her June 6 score, whatever it turns out to be.  

 

I think it is interesting that she has still not received an email from the CB describing the retake-in-October option; I knew about it only from checking in at College Confidential.  Also, even though I am supposed to be cc'd on her emails, the CB did not cc me on their original email to her about dropping these sections.  They cc parents on their kid's admission ticket but not on this?  Pretty sure that was not an oversight.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

One of my lessons learned this year has been to try to get testing done by junior year. And even then things happen. I planned to have ds take subject tests in June. But that ended up being a travel day back from a service academy summer program.

 

I would love it if SAT were available in the summer. I think this should be a general goal for them to achieve. But since they contract their sites and proctors, I'd be pretty ticked if students in one area were able to do summer tests but my kid wasn't.

 

Eta: back in the day I was one of very few students in my school who took the March exam junior year. Now I feel like that is on the late end. My ds needed solid scores by Dec-Jan for summer program applications. That pushes tests back to fall and winter junior year. But if they want a chance to take and retake they need to start even earlier. Then CB has some giant screw up like the timing on the June exam and it throws everything off. I know for example that the Oct exam is the last test for my ds to take subject tests and still have scores in hand in the early app window. I'd be livid if that date now needed to be used for a retake.

[Joules]

One of my lessons learned this year has been to try to get testing done by junior year. And even then things happen. I planned to have ds take subject tests in June. But that ended up being a travel day back from a service academy summer program.

 

I would love it if SAT were available in the summer. I think this should be a general goal for them to achieve. But since they contract their sites and proctors, I'd be pretty ticked if students in one area were able to do summer tests but my kid wasn't.

 

Eta: back in the day I was one of very few students in my school who took the March exam junior year. Now I feel like that is on the late end. My ds needed solid scores by Dec-Jan for summer program applications. That pushes tests back to fall and winter junior year. But if they want a chance to take and retake they need to start even earlier. Then CB has some giant screw up like the timing on the June exam and it throws everything off. I know for example that the Oct exam is the last test for my ds to take subject tests and still have scores in hand in the early app window. I'd be livid if that date now needed to be used for a retake.

 

The bold is the exact situation that we are in. Once the scores come in, we'll have a decisions to make about applications.  If he needs to retest, we'll have to drop those schools that require the math subject test (he's taken Lit and Chem).  

 

I really feel awful about it, being the "advisor."  I didn't think we were waiting until the last minute.  We just had so much going on (activities, APs, classes), June seemed like a good time for the tests.  Unfortunately he was disheartened by the SAT, so didn't go into the ACT at his best.  I would love to have a score that actually represents his capability.  I'm a bit crazy waiting for next week's score releases.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

The more I think about it, the more I think that CB ought to give a free retest IN ADDITION to the June scores, not as a sight unseen replacement for them.

 

How is a student supposed to make a determination of what their score would be given an unknown scoring model?  Why not let the students actually see the scores, then decide if the unusual scoring model represented their best work on the exam or not?

 

CB has bent under public pressure before.  It might be worth more pushing.  Not only in individual emails, but also in letters to national education writers like Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post.

[TrixieB]

The more I think about it, the more I think that CB ought to give a free retest IN ADDITION to the June scores, not as a sight unseen replacement for them.

 

How is a student supposed to make a determination of what their score would be given an unknown scoring model?  Why not let the students actually see the scores, then decide if the unusual scoring model represented their best work on the exam or not?

 

CB has bent under public pressure before.  It might be worth more pushing.  Not only in individual emails, but also in letters to national education writers like Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post.

 

ITA.  My dd hadn't taken the SAT prior to June 6th.  If she has to decide BEFORE SEEING HER SCORE whether to throw it out... how can she possibly know if she should do that? 

[emzhengjiu]

I hope the agent didn't know what he was talking about!  I noticed today that the College Board website notes that the deadline is in September to request the fee waiver.  We should be able to see the scores by next week.  Maybe we will be able to obtain the fee waiver and see the June 6th scores.  

[emzhengjiu]

Okay, I called the College Board back just now.  The agent today told me we would have access to the June 6th scores and if we felt our students had been affected negatively we would have until Sept. 3rd to request a fee waiver for the Oct. test.  I wish the College Board would get agents on the same page!  But this is much better.

[TrixieB]

Okay, I called the College Board back just now.  The agent today told me we would have access to the June 6th scores and if we felt our students had been affected negatively we would have until Sept. 3rd to request a fee waiver for the Oct. test.  I wish the College Board would get agents on the same page!  But this is much better.

 

I sure hope the agent knows what he/she was talking about. 

 

IMO the best option would be for the students to see their scores for ALL sections of the test, so they would know how they would have scored compared to how they actually scored with the two sections thrown out.  For the students who were given 20 minutes on the affected sections, it would confirm or deny the College Board's assertion that throwing out the two sections doesn't impact student scores.

 

 

[Sebastian (a lady)]

I sure hope the agent knows what he/she was talking about. 

 

IMO the best option would be for the students to see their scores for ALL sections of the test, so they would know how they would have scored compared to how they actually scored with the two sections thrown out.  For the students who were given 20 minutes on the affected sections, it would confirm or deny the College Board's assertion that throwing out the two sections doesn't impact student scores.

 

It does seem to agree with the info here.  (Which may be what was in the OP.)

 

Q: Is there an opportunity for a retest?

We remain confident in the reliability of scores from the June 6 administration of the SAT and don't want to cause undue anxiety for students by making them believe they need to sit for the test again. However, we have waived the fee for the October SAT administration for students who let us know that their testing experience was negatively affected by the printing error and we will continue to do so, through the September 3 registration deadline for the October administration.