SAT, ACT, and IB Canceled; At-Home Testing for AP and GRE
As testing organizations respond to Covid-19 containment measures, it’s key for students to understand their options.
Last week, College Board and ACT, Inc., canceled the next two months of nationally administered exams for SAT and ACT, respectively. Students with active registrations for these test dates were contacted directly to refund their fees (SAT) or reschedule for a later test date (ACT). N.B.: If you were registered for the April 4th ACT, you’ll need to log in to your ACT account and manually select a new test date or ask for a refund.
That means the next available time to take the SAT is June 6th (for ACT, it’s June 13th), if indeed schools are open. (College Board is looking into adding a test date, but details are TBD.) Juniors would be wise to use the extra time afforded by school closures to prepare for summer testing, as the application procedures might look different this fall – you’ll want all your focus to be on apps and essays come September.
College Board also announced Friday the plan to administer 45-min. take-home exams in lieu of a week of proctored AP tests in May. The take-home exams will be accessed online and consist of entirely of free-response problems (no multiple-choice). Given the variability in remote learning access during school closures, exams will only cover AP curriculum typically taught by early March. And to make up for lost classroom review time, College Board is expanding access to review materials on its website and live review sessions via its AP YouTube channel.
After first entertaining an option whereby schools would have decided to host or cancel exams, the International Baccalaureate organization said today that it was canceling all IB exams, originally scheduled between April 30th and May 22nd. IB issued guidance on both continuing IB coursework (for high schools) and evaluating IB credentials in the absence of exam scores (for colleges awarding course credit). Students technically have the option of testing in November, rather than forgoing exams entirely, but it’s unlikely many students will opt for this timeline, given the need for seniors to matriculate in the fall and the sizable burden of staying fresh on course content for juniors and sophomores.
Finally, ETS, the organization that administers GRE and TOEFL, announced new at-home testing protocol over the weekend. In North America as well as parts of Europe and Asia, GRE test-takers can download an application via which a human proctor will administer the test. (Like most ETS rollouts, Mac users get short shrift; the ProctorU system may only be run on PCs with Windows 7 or later.) Unofficial scores will still be viewable immediately after the test, and official scores (incl. Analytical Writing scores) will be sent to institutions within 10-15 days.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) continues to put testing organizations on the defense. Stay tuned for further updates to testing and admissions – and reach out if you would like help navigating the rapidly shifting educational landscape.
