Pearson Educational Measurement, a company that scans the answer sheets for the SATs, announced March 9 that there was an error in the scoring of many of the tests taken Oct. 8. However, despite the discrepancy, Boston University officials say errors do not affect prospective student applications at BU.
According to a March 8 College Board press release, “approximately 4,000 students (0.8 percent of the SAT Reasoning test-takers who tested during that administration) did not receive credit for some correct answers; therefore, their scores are higher than originally reported.”
A second announcement on March 22 said that more than 27,000 tests had not been checked for errors.
Most of the tests taken on the early October testing date were in the Northeast, where Boston and the rest of the region were experiencing vast amounts of rainfall. According to PEM, the abnormal amount of moisture in the air caused the answer sheets to expand just enough so that the grading machines at a scanning center in Austin, Texas were not able to read them correctly.
PEM spokesperson David Hakensen said in a press release that the moisture caused the ovals “to move just slightly, enough so that it will be out of registration for the scanning head to read the answers.”
According to the College Board press release, most scores changed by fewer than 100 points on the new 2,400-point test, and only 16 tests were lowered by more than 200 points.
However, the College Board issued a press release Wednesday outlining new review methods that they and PEM will take to ensure more slipups do not reoccur. These methods include scanning “each answer sheet twice,” improving software to detect possible expansion of ovals due to moisture and running the process by “global strategy and technology consulting firm” Booz Allen Hamilton, who will “perform a comprehensive review” and “provide recommendations within 90 days.”
The October test date is one of the last dates before college application deadlines. BU’s regular-decision deadline for applications for Fall 2006 was January 3.
BU spokesman Colin Riley said the grading discrepancy will have no effect on BU’s applicants.
“It won’t affect BU at all,” he said. “Our decisions had not gone out yet.”
Riley said approximately 230 of the 32,000 SAT scores received by BU were part of the altered bunch.
“When notified almost two weeks ago, we immediately reevaluated the applications of those students,” he said.
According to Riley, standardized test scores, although important, are not the deciding factor in an admissions decision. He said the focus is on course load, recommendations, grades and essays, while SAT scores just reinforce the accuracy of those more important components.
Scholarships and financial aid will not be affected by the slip either. The university was able to catch the mistake before any decisions had been finalized, Riley said.
While most of the concern surrounding this issue is about the lowering of test scores, in some cases, students’ scores were raised.
However, College Board SAT Information Services Executive Director Brian O’Reilly said these scores will not be corrected because students who had received a desirable, although incorrect, score may not have retested, and to correct their score would be unfair to those students.
“This was a mistake that we made,” he said. “It was a technical error that was made in the scanning of student answer sheets. Because it came to light so late in the college admissions process, there was nothing students could do about it. We’re not re-reporting any score that would have been lower had we reported it.”
O’Reilly said the largest score decrease would have 50 points “across all three measures of the SAT-writing, reading and math.”
“A 50 point decrease would not have made any difference in an admissions decision,” he said.
Riley said the university is not concerned about the possibility of inflated test scores because the number of applications affected was so small and the SAT is never the deciding factor.