You're kidding right?
Wednesday's Wall Street Journal has an alarming article [subscription required] on the incompetence of the College Board -- the people who run the SAT.
In the wake of grading errors that wrongly lowered the SAT scores of thousands of students, a number of guidance counselors and college test-prep services say they are urging test takers to pay extra for backup scoring services to verify results. These services, which can range from $10 to $100 on top of the $41.50 fee for the test, are available only through the College Board itself. They include sending students copies of their answer sheets that they can check themselves, or hand scoring the test, which is usually graded by machine.
Some services may not be available to all students, depending on what month they take the test. And recent test takers probably won't be able to use them to affect the current college-application season, which is in full swing. But as reports of mistakes continue, counselors and students say their confidence in the scoring process is eroding.
That's right, you're paying good money to take the test -- sometimes several times -- and the College Board wants more money to make sure they've graded your test correctly. What's the original $41.50 for, having some monkey grade it?
I'm just flabbergasted by the entire concept of having to pay extra to make sure your test is graded correctly because they've been having problems doing it right the first time. Maybe people should start taking the ACT exam.
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Is there any guarantee that opting for backup scoring will leave you in a better position? If the scoring is so screwed up, aren't some scores higher than they should be? If so, could you be paying $100 to get a lower score? Or will they only correct upwards, as they apparently are doing with the recent problem? And if so many of the raw scores are adjusted upward as a result of backup scoring, don't they have to readjust all the final scores, which I thought were based on some sort of curve?