March SAT Timing Glitch: What Should Affected Students Do?

Updated March 21 to reflect the unsatisfactory solution College Board has provided to students at sites where an “irregularity report” was filed.

Students who were directly impacted by the auto-submission bug on March 8 were offered a score preview and the possibility of a makeup exam, as explained in our original post below. The bug created other problems, though, as staff and students attempted to avoid the problem. Many of these were lumped under the general classification of “irregularity report.” Irregularity reports (IRs) also arise for situations such as power outages, fire drills, or inappropriate behavior. The standard policy for IRs is to delay students scores, investigate the irregularity, provide a retest if available, and allow students to cancel a scores before they has been revealed. Because of the widescale nature of the auto-submit bug, College Board made certain exceptions to this policy. It now appears that these exceptions are not being provided in all cases. Below is a comparison of the conflicting information.

Quoting from College Board website on the March 8 glitch:

While we can’t preview these students’ scores with them, they can call to tell us they want us to release their score to them as part of official score release for the March 8 SAT (scores will be released by March 26), while having us place a hold on that score being sent to any colleges. After score release, they can call us after they see their score to remove the hold and send their scores to colleges, or cancel their score altogether.

Quoting from a recent email to a student at a site with an irregularity report:

You can only view scores once they’re reported in your College Board account and can’t view them before making your decision [to cancel or report scores].

The latest emails we have seen do not specify the nature of the irregularity, so it is impossible to determine where College Board is drawing the line between students eligible to see their scores and those not eligible to see their scores. College Board has also had difficulty in scheduling makeup exams, so many students have not received that option.

Compass sees the contradictory messages as explainable in at least 1 of 3 ways:

1. College Board sent the latest email in error as a general response to irregularity reports and not as a specific solution to the March 8 problem.
2. College Board is responding to irregularity reports that it considers to fall outside of the auto-submit issue.
3. College Board has changed its policy.

Please contact College Board 866-756-7346, or +1-212-713-7789 for any additional information. This does not apply to students who have already received word of retesting or score previews directly from College Board.

Compass continues to recommend that students unsure of whether to cancel should not cancel. See more below.

Updated March 13 to reflect email from College Board to impacted students. Updated March 14 to include additional details now spelled out on College Board’s website.

• A software glitch caused the March 8 SAT to auto-submit prematurely, impacting many students in the US and abroad.
• The issue primarily affected students at sites that started slowly and/or students who receive extended time accommodations. It occurred during the Math section which comes last.
• College Board’s proposed remedies require trade-offs that don’t need to be required. A chorus of voices is advocating for more appropriate and common sense alternatives.College Board will allow impacted students to preview their scores before making a decision about score cancellation and a makeup exam.
• This post explains what happened and what students should know about makeup exams, refunds, and retake vouchers.
• We also discuss how score choice, self-reporting, and super scoring policies factor into a student’s decision to keep or cancel their March 8 score.

Almost 200,000 students around the globe took the March 8 SAT. What those students did not know was that there was a ticking software bomb in the Bluebook app that delivers the digital SAT. The glitch meant that under certain circumstances, a student’s test would be submitted at exactly 11:00 a.m., whether the student had finished the exam or not.

The error gradually made its way around the world. Students reported the problem in Australia, Vietnam, and Pakistan as early as midnight Eastern time, eight hours before test takers in the U.S. had even started their exams. College Board made an attempt to notify site administrators via email of the slow moving disaster, but that message was often seen too late, and the fix—rebooting the app and logging back into the exam—created its own level of chaos. The Bluebook’s testing timer is unstoppable once set in motion, so there was no opportunity for proctors to pause the exam or add back time lost to reboots.

The vulnerability seems to have impacted students who arrived at the test site already logged into the Bluebook app, which is also the practice test environment for the SAT. The standard-length test, including the 10-minute break, lasts for 2 hours and 24 minutes, so testing rooms that started by 8:36 a.m. avoided the glitch. Students with later starts or who were testing with special accommodations that included extended time were not as fortunate. The Reading and Writing (R/W) portion of the SAT is always first, so except in extremely unusual circumstances, the impact was limited to the Math section.

Impacted students were originally told that they would receive official scores from March 8 ONLY if they contacted customer service, ONLY if they did so before seeing their scores, and ONLY if they gave up the opportunity for a retake on March 22 (for which there was no guarantee of availability). College Board volunteered these remedies ONLY to students it immediately identified as having fallen victim to the 11 a.m. bug.

Advocates for students quickly pointed out the flaws in the remediation plan, and College Board has finally settled on an improvement [updated on March 13 and 14]. Score cancellation will no longer be the default. Students who want to receive their scores do not need to act immediately. Instead, College Board has devised a plan to show them a score “preview” for March 8 results. Students will then have the option of cancelling those scores. Unfortunately, College Board claims that there is no way for students to keep a March 8 score and a score from a March 22 makeup exam. Students satisfied with the March 8 score will not be able to take the makeup without forfeiting the original scores. At least they can now make informed decisions. Students will receive a refund of March 8 fees and a free test voucher, so one option is to forgo the makeup in favor of the May or June SAT.

Originally, the remediation policy only applied to students whose tests were auto-submitted. College Board has now clarified that the policy will also apply to “students losing testing time because they were instructed in their room to reboot Bluebook mid-testing.” [Per the March 21 update, it is unclear whether all students swept up into irregularity reports will receive the preview option.]  The latest FAQ from College Board gives the most comprehensive summary yet. If you received an email from College Board, you are considered impacted. If you feel that you should have been included in the definition of “impacted” but have not received any information, contact College Board customer service at at http://www.sat.org/inquiry or 866-756-7346 or 212-713-7789.

If you were impacted by the Bluebook bug, what are the next steps?

You should have received an email on or around March 13th with the updated policy. “By the end of this week,” according to College Board, you should receive an additional email with your preview score. You can then decide whether or not you wish to move forward with the March 22 makeup. Again, you cannot keep your original score AND take the makeup exam. The March 22 makeup exam is not available at all sites, and seats may be limited. The May 3rd SAT will be a good option for some.

Why does Compass advocate for College Board allowing students to see and keep a score for an exam that they didn’t finish?

First, most students did complete the R/W section, and that score can be valuable in the superscoring process.

Second, some students were almost done with the Math section and may be satisfied with that score.

Third, scores are the only feedback students receive on the digital SAT (no questions and answers are provided), so they can provide useful information for future testing.

But won’t a low Math score or low Total score be a blemish on a student’s record?

No. Students can use Score Choice to submit selected test dates to colleges. Georgetown University is currently the only college tracked by Compass that both requires and evaluates all scores. And even Georgetown will have received the memo about the March 8 SAT. The vast majority of colleges superscore the SAT, creating a new Total score from the student’s best R/W performance and best Math performance. Poor scores never bring down a superscore. This should not be a concern for most students.

I received College Board’s original email and called to cancel my scores. Now that I’ve seen the score preview, can I change my mind?

Yes, but you will need to contact College Board ASAP at 866-756-7346 or 212-713-7789. If you are certain that you want to keep your score, you cannot take the makeup SAT on March 22.

Can I just retake the Math section?

Unfortunately, no. The SAT is only given as a whole. No option is being provided to simply finish off the remaining portion of the exam or to take only Math.

What can Compass do to help?

Students should keep in practice before their next test sitting. Compass can help by offering all students – whether a Compass client or not – a free practice SAT via our Online Testing Center by entering the code MARCHSAT. The sign-up will be available until March 31st. Compass students can also reach out to their director for advice.

What are the ways College Board must change in order to win back trust?

First, College Board should enact a more humane policy for impacted students. This was College Board’s mistake alone. Students deserve a makeup exam, score results, and an option for cancellation, and they deserve those things without trade-offs. College Board’s computer systems can also track which students avoided the 11 a.m. bug but still encountered problems with their test timing because of remediation attempts.

The Bluebook app is central for SAT, PSAT, and AP testing. College Board must improve its technical controls and test site communication practices. Students deserve an explanation as to why proctors have no emergency override authority in the event of a failure like the one seen in March.

It’s also time for College Board to reevaluate its standard procedure for such incidents so that it can respond more compassionately and appropriately in the future.

There are times when scores must be invalidated in order to protect the integrity of the exam, but invalidation or cancellation should never be the default response, and students should not have to make uninformed decisions.

The full March 13th email from College Board explaining its revised policy [again, this policy is in conflict with the message being received by some students]:

We know you were impacted by a technical issue during the March 8–9 weekend SAT® administration that ended your test before your testing time was complete. We understand this has been an incredibly frustrating situation for you after you worked hard to prepare for the test, and we apologize.

This email is an update to the email you received over the weekend about next steps and includes information about new options for you.

You don’t need to take any action right now, but here’s what happens next.

By the end of this week, we will issue a full refund of your registration fees to your original form of payment, and we will also apply a voucher to your account for a free registration for a future SAT administration.
Also, by the end of this week, you will receive an email with a preview of your score from your test. Previewing this score will allow you to make an informed decision about whether to keep your score or take a makeup exam if it’s available in your area on March 22 (March 23 for Sunday testers).

By March 19, you will receive an email letting you know if a makeup exam is available to you. If a makeup isn’t available, we will share information about your options.

If you decide to keep your score (by opting out of the March makeup exam), you will get your official score no later than March 26. If you instead take an available March 22 makeup exam, your March 8 score will be canceled, and you will receive your makeup score within two weeks.

Again, we understand this issue has created a very difficult situation for you, and we are sorry.

If you have any questions, you may contact Customer Service at www.sat.org/inquiry or 866-756-7346, or +1-212-713-7789 (international). Customer Service hours are 8 a.m.–8 p.m. ET, Monday–Friday.

Sincerely,

College Board

This post was written in a collaborative effort with Compass Co-Founders Art Sawyer and Bruce Reed, and also drew upon community-sourced information.