In the wake of a timing error on the SAT administered June 6, 2015, critics of the standardized test have pointed to the College Board’s response to the error as evidence that the SAT is too long.
Two sections of the SAT were mistakenly compromised when a printing error incorrectly gave some students an extra five minutes on each section. Some proctors caught the error and some didn’t, so the College Board announced that it would invalidate those sections.
It insisted, however, that the remaining sections, which would be graded, constitute a fair and accurate measure of students’ scores across tests.
As Dan Edmonds at Forbes points out, succinctly, “Either the College Board Is Lying, or the SAT is Too Long.”
Edmonds notes that the last time the SAT was changed, in 2005, the College Board made the test longer, citing that they required more questions to gain an accurate picture of students’ scores. Now, they claim that even when missing two sections, the SAT and its scores are reliable.
What emerges in the wake of this timing error is a blatant contradiction: “Has the test been too long for a decade?” Edmonds asks. “Or is the College Board misrepresenting the facts now?”
Edmonds recommends that students take the ACT instead, but we’re not so sure. The SAT has long been the standard for college entrance exams. We’ll just have to wait and see if the New SAT, scheduled for a rollout in the spring of 2016, is a success. Mistakes happen—but the College Board would do well to learn from them and improve.
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