SAT scores delayed

A delay in the processing of SAT I and SAT II answer sheets prevented students who tested at Blair on Nov. 6 from receiving their online scores on time.

Many Blair students received their SAT I and SAT II scores on Thursday, Dec. 2 from the College Board website after a delay of almost two weeks. Students who took the November SAT at Blair were unable to check their scores online by the date stated on the College Board website. "You're supposed to have access the second Friday after the test," said Career and College Center Assistant Cathy Henderson-Stein.

According to Stein, delays have occurred before. "They[College Board] had the same problem before," Stein said. "A number of Blair kids were inconvenienced in October as well," she said.

Senior Mariam Khan was one of those students. "I stopped calling College Board [when I didn't get my November SAT scores] because on the October SAT's I didn't receive my scores on time either," she said.

But Tom Ewing, spokesman for Educational Testing Service (ETS), attributes the problem to Blair, not College Board. "The answer sheets were turned back to ETS in the test books. It takes longer to go through and find the answer sheets from each book," he said.

According to Ewing, ETS didn't get the answer sheets ready for scoring until the Nov. 24, after the other tests had already gone through the process of being scored. Consequently, they had to begin the scoring process for a second round.

Students who took the writing SAT II are still unable to view their score. "The Writing SAT II's takes longer because of the essay portion," Ewing said.

Ewing also said that there should be no problems for any students who chose to apply Early Decision.

Counselor Charlain Bailey reassured students planning on sending the scores to college "The schools won't penalize kids for things outside of their control," she said.

Regardless, Stein advises students who are worried or who have missed a deadline to call the school to which they are applying. "Be an advocate for yourself," she said.

Stein, who has called College Board a number of times, is largely frustrated by the continuing delays. "If they take your money they should provide a good service," she said.

Senior Natalie Berger, whose scores were delayed from the November SAT, says that, though she was not that anxious to receive her own score, it was a concern for some of her friends who had decided to apply to schools early. "I know a lot of people were really antsy to know, especially for people who had college deadlines earlier," she said.