Of the 495,000 students who took the SAT on Oct. 25, 2005, 4,411 were found to have had their scores mistakenly lowered through a processing error, according to a March 22 College Board media release.
From the testing date in question, the Ohio State admissions office received scores from 31 students, 14 of whom submitted a completed application, said Mabel Freeman, assistant vice president of undergraduate admissions and First Year Experience.
The adjustment in scores failed to affect any of the prospective students’ admission to OSU, she said.
“We did a full review of each student affected. We wanted to be fair,” Freeman said. “Some had been admitted, some weren’t, but the score change didn’t affect any decision admissions had made.”
Current OSU students said they felt scoring errors could ultimately reduce the reliance of standardized testing for college admission.
“When I took the SATs, scoring errors didn’t even cross my mind,” said Jess Iwler, a third-year student at the Moritz College of Law. “But I think that it might make people question them and reduce the reliance on them.”
Jennifer Topiel, executive director of public affairs at the College Board, said weather damage is to blame for the scoring discrepancy.
“News reports, around the time the tests were to be scanned, reported torrential rain — up to five inches in one day. There was a moisture buildup that caused the answer sheets to warp,” she said.
Pearson Educational Measurement, the company responsible for scoring the SAT, is taking steps to eliminate the chance of incorrectly scoring a test due to excessive moisture.
The error was originally discovered when two students requested that their tests be hand scored after receiving their results, Topiel said. Much to the surprise of the College Board, the difference in scores was drastic enough to prompt a recall of all tests taken in October.
The re-evaluation showed that of those students affected, 83 percent of scores were lowered by 10 to 40 points, while 95 percent of all students affected were by less than 100 points.
Once those students affected by the error had been identified, college admissions were first to be notified, followed shortly by school principals, guidance counselors, and the students themselves. To avoid penalizing students whose scores had been raised due to the error, their results will remain unchanged, Topiel said.
Danny Straub, guidance counselor at Dublin Jerome High School, said the situation can work in a student’s favor.
“I think that the scoring errors might create some anxiety, but it almost becomes an issue of reverse consideration,” Straub said. “In a strange sort of way, those students affected by this might enjoy a little extra consideration (from admissions offices).”
