One of the pitfalls of digital testing is the potential for tech issues during the test. In the past year of digital SAT® testing, the College Board has worked hard to deliver a testing platform that protects students from tech glitches, but no digital test is perfect all of the time—and, unfortunately, the Saturday test date for March proved that point.
What Happened?
A technological glitch resulted in many students having their SAT submitted early. This seems to be related to the platform’s timing system, which was designed to submit the test at 11:00 a.m. local time.
For many students, especially those who have extended time on the test or whose testing locations had a delayed start time, the test was submitted before they completed the math section of the test.
Other students reported problems earlier in the testing experience as proctors attempted to proactively address the problem. These students were told to log out and log back in, a process that took up to 20 minutes—and the timer ran the entire time.
College Board’s Response
On Monday, March 10, the College Board emailed students who tested that day. (If you’re one of those students, be sure to check your email!) The College Board will be canceling all test scores by default unless students contact customer service by March 20 to request their scores be kept.
As part of their solution, the College Board is offering a free makeup test on March 22 for students whose scores are canceled.
What Should You Do?
Your next steps depend on your testing experience on March 8!
I Successfully Submitted My Test!
A successful test submission means that you saw a “Congratulations” screen after submitting. If you successfully submitted your test and you feel pretty good about test day, then you need to take action as soon as possible!
Contact College Board customer service by March 20. On the customer service form, choose the topic “Scores.” You’ll have an option to request your scores not be cancelled.
If you choose to keep your scores, you are not eligible for the March 22 makeup exam, but you will still get a full refund and a voucher for a free future test registration.
I Was Impacted by the Glitch…
If you either lost time thanks to well-meaning proctors who had you log out mid-test or had your test submitted before you were ready, you have options.
Think about your testing experience. If one section was unaffected and you feel pretty confident in the scores for that section, consider contacting customer service to keep your scores. After all, most colleges super score, so if you did well on one section of the test, you could always take the free voucher College Board is going to give you to try to bring up your score in the other section.
For example, let’s say your test got submitted early, so you’re worried about your math score—but you felt really great after finishing the reading and writing section, so you don’t want to lose what might be your highest verbal score yet! Keep the score, and if your math score is disappointing, retest later to bring it up.
If, on the other hand, the whole testing experience didn’t feel great, do nothing. Let the College Board cancel your scores. You can retake the exam on March 22 or register for a later test date.
Regardless of whether you keep your scores or allow them to be cancelled, you’ll get a full refund of your registration fee and a voucher for a free test registration in the future.
Worried about those SAT scores? Reach out to your local C2 Education center to find out how we can help you maximize your scores and set yourself up for admission at your dream college.
