Standardized tests are a major cause of stress in a typical high schooler’s life. Usually, colleges require that a student submit scores for either the SAT or ACT. However, the global pandemic has changed these circumstances. For the 2020-2021 application season, according to FairTest, more than 1,600 colleges are not requiring students to submit SAT and ACT scores.
The SAT and ACT have both cancelled test dates last-minute. The College Board has said that at least 1.5 million students have missed the test because of cancellations. According to the ACT, there were approximately 1,300 fewer national test centers participating in September test dates than in the previous year. In September, the number of test-takers surged to 126,000 students, compared to 80,000 students in July and 50,000 students in June.
Oftentimes, test centers fail to notify families of cancellations in a timely manner. According to Susan Adams, a journalist from Forbes, some students had to fly out of state to take their test. Nithila Poongovan, a senior who lives in California, has had to travel to Arizona twice within a month to take the SAT. In another incident, a student reported having her SAT canceled five times. In an extreme case, one student flew from Tokyo to Boston to take the test in March, only to learn that it was canceled.
The College Board does not administer the test — the Educational Testing Service (ETS) does. ETS is the world’s largest private nonprofit educational testing organization. According to the College Board, it paid $350 million to ETS in 2018 to handle test administrations. Test centers report to representatives from ETS, then the information about closures is posted on the College Board’s test closure site.
As COVID-19 continues to hit record-breaking numbers in the U.S, it would be wise for test-takers to sign up for their tests early, in case the number of seats become limited, or if dates are canceled altogether.
