MCPS cancels PSAT due to country-wide technical difficulties with Bluebook

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On Wednesday, Oct. 11 at 9:21 a.m., Montgomery County Public Schools’ Central Office canceled PSAT testing due to widespread technical issues with teacher login and the student testing platform Bluebook. County announcements have also indicated problems with the servers across the country. Over three million students take the PSAT every year, and it serves as the qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship program.

Blair principal Renay Johnson sent an email to all Blair teachers canceling testing at 9:21 a.m. “Due to ongoing issues with the testing platform that is preventing many schools from accessing the test… MCPS is stopping all testing at this time. We will be notified of the next testing date…. Please understand that this cancellation is beyond our control, and everyone will need to be flexible,” Johnson said in the email.

Parents received an email at 9:38 a.m. regarding the situation from Johnson, referencing a future test date. “We apologize for the inconvenience due to College Board technical difficulties. A rescheduled date and time for testing will be communicated” she said.

Blair junior Carmella Beach said that some students were able to access the test before it was called off. “I got to class, and my teacher said ‘It’s not working.’ We sat there for around an hour and then at around 8:30 a.m. it started working. I was only able to complete a couple questions before Ms. Johnson canceled testing,” she said. Blair’s schedule was changed to accommodate for the cancellation. Period 4 was added and other scheduled classes were moved earlier in the day.

The Bluebook testing problems have led to cancellations across the country in schools as far as Texas. Northwood, Sherwood, Einstein, Magruder, Churchill, and Blake were among the schools that canceled testing due to technical difficulties. However, at Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, almost every student completed the test. Go Orringer, a sophomore at Richard Montgomery took the PSAT with no major problems. “I know from a couple friends that the PSAT did not happen at Blair and some other schools. The system shut down and teachers were not able to log on. We were delayed by ten minutes but that was it,” they said.