By Jeffrey Dalton

Students often spend months preparing for their standardized testing exams. The SAT and ACT requires students to not only learn the content but learn the exams themselves. Education consultants advise students to consider SAT prep or ACT prep as part of a larger college admissions plan, necessitating good grades and high scores and impressive resumes.

So it can be extremely frustrating when students, who have done everything right in preparing for the exams and studying diligently and attending SAT classes or ACT classes, arrive at the test center on test day and discover that, for whatever reason, they will not be able to write the SAT or ACT exam.

While there is not always satisfactory follow-up, it is worth understanding why this happens and what students can do about it.

Decreased Capacity

It has become a cliche that Covid-19 has upended everything, altering life itself in an era of cancelled events and social distancing—and the former is often the primary reason why students are turned away from SAT and ACT test centers.

Schools and institutions that host the SAT and ACT test administration are subject to local policies and regulations regarding necessary distancing measures. Here in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, that falls on both UAE-wide and municipal authorities to determine proper measures. The testing centers must then update their capacities as these measures change, and in the process of adjusting seating capacity these testing centers may overallocate seats.

For example, the testing center may, in ordinary times, be able to seat 50 students but, with the most recent social distancing measures, only 30 students can be seated. Those final 20 students who signed up to write the SAT or ACT are then placed on a waitlist day-of. Students are often given no advance notice and show up at the test center to discover this update.

Defunct Testing Centers

Individual secondary schools or educational institutions can opt to run SAT and/or ACT testing administration. These potential test centers then go through a procedure, determined by either College Board or ACT Inc., in order to be permitted to administer the exam.

Especially for international institutions, be they local or private schools or learning centers or educational businesses, there can be a disconnect between the quality of the institution itself and the quality assurance guaranteed—or at least suggested—by College Board or ACT Inc. What this means is that the level of professionalism, integrity, and rigor that these testing boards prefer is either not present or not sufficiently present in these institutions to administer the SAT or ACT up to standards.

Nor are there any sort of rankings or reviews for testing centers, meaning unsuspecting students and parents may register to take either the SAT or the ACT at a testing center that historically is unreliable or does not administer exams in a conducive testing environment. Short of word-of-mouth information, no one would know this as they log into their College Board or ACT Inc. account and register for an exam.

Sometimes entire testing centers cancel their administrations a week or even days in advance. This could be because of compromised testing integrity or logistical challenges that are then not communicated to registered students. These students (and their parents) are informed by email that their testing center is no longer administering the exam and that they must either register late at another or wait for the next test date—which could be months into the future.

Decentralized Decision-Making

College Board and ACT Inc. are American corporations headquartered in the US. While both are trying to expand their presence internationally, it is not as if either has much of a ground presence outside the US. Consequently, decisions regarding test centers are largely up to the test centers themselves. College Board and ACT Inc. may complete only limited due diligence before authorizing test centers.

This disconnect is often the cause of disruptions to test centers or inconsistent availability across different institutions offering the SAT and the ACT. Neither can be absolutely certain that the school or educational institution hosting the test is up to the standards that both College Board and ACT Inc. demand in the US—a problematic domestic test center will be investigated immediately, but an international one in a similar situation may not as rapidly be assessed.

Similarly, both SAT and ACT are predominantly American tests; the vast majority of test-takers for either test are US students in the US. This further results in a concentration of resources for domestic test administration.

Recourse

A student whose exam is either cancelled beforehand or who is turned away from a test center due to insufficient space or social distancing protocols should be refunded the registration fee; this should be automatic. Additionally, if the student registers late at another test center, the late fee should be waived as well.

Unfortunately, test administration for the SAT and ACT is not perfect around the world. Sometimes entire centers cancel their administrations, while others turn away sufficiently-registered students the day of the exam. Despite test prep classes and diligent studying, students are denied the opportunity to sit the exam on their chosen date.

While it is true that there is always another administration, educational consultants would recommend that students should contact both College Board and ACT Inc. to explore their options. Every student deserves the opportunity to write the SAT or ACT on the day of the registration.

- Hale Education Group