Scandals of the SAT

On Saturday, Aug. 25, thousands of students took the SAT hoping for a score that would meet their standards. However, some of the test takers weren’t just relying on intelligence to achieve a high score. After taking the test, speculations arose that there was an unfair advantage because a version of the test was leaked in Asia. It does not stop there, some have come to believe that a few test takers not only knew a couple of the questions but had already taken a very similar test with the same questions. With this news revealed, students and parents were looking to The College Board to see what their response would be to these situations. The College Board did nothing.The disappointment and anger from people towards The College Board is understandable. Their decision gives the impression that they take cheating lightly, despite the majority of the test takers having an extremely unfair disadvantage. The College Board is jeopardizing their credibility and contradicting the idea that they go to great lengths to ensure that every test is valid and every test environment allows students to succeed. With this scandal, they have lost the trust of future test takers. From the reaction to this dilemma, it is clear that people have forgotten previous scenarios in which taking the SAT was an unethical experience. The June 2 test had many parents complaining to The College Board about their idea of curving tests. In order to maintain that every SAT is at the same difficulty level as others, they curve the test based on the results. In other words, if the majority of the test takers perform poorly, the test will be curved up to “decrease” the difficulty of the test. But, this curve goes both ways. Because the June 2 test was considered to be on the easy side, this test was graded on a harsh grading scale with little to no curve. Many parents were furious and believed that their kids’ hard work and their money was put to waste. With their style of grading, The College Board has yet again disregarded the idea of giving each test taker a legitimate experience taking the SAT.Clearly, The College Board is building a negative reputation for itself that leaves test takers and their families unsatisfied. We should all take this information into account when choosing to trust The College Board and take a test that is a huge factor in many students’ future.