Eric Locke, Akhil Castelli, and Evan Menz
Staff Writers
The College Board said on Tuesday, June 2, that it would not be giving students the chance to take the SAT online this year. The College Board canceled all their spring SAT dates and claimed that they were in the process of making the SAT online.
The College Board claims that there were many technological difficulties making the online version of the SAT due to the number of kids who take it every year. In 2019 2.2 million kids took the SAT. The College Board has now opened up for testing in the fall, starting in late August. The College Board is asking colleges to be flexible due to COVID -19 and extend deadlines for receiving test scores.
The decision to not have the SAT online this year comes after the College Board had an extremely shaky experience last month when they introduced online versions of their library of Advanced Placement exams. Many students had complaints and experienced technical issues with submitting their tests. Many tests were automatically disqualified. This resulted in multiple lawsuits filed against the College Board, even though the College Board claims less than one percent of students who had taken the test were affected by these problems.
Another option for students comes in the form of the ACT, the SAT’s test rival. The ACT announced on Tuesday they still plan to offer a remote option in the fall. For the last couple of years, the College Board has been fighting criticism and lawsuits advocating that colleges go “test-optional” with the argument being they are biased along racial and income lines. Last year, the College Board introduced the Adversity Score to address disparities in the SAT.
