SAT Score Verification Score Report Delay?

Nutmeg22 · 10-08-2012, 01:07 AM

Alright, here is my situation. I am a high school senior who took the SAT yesterday (October of 2012) and I plan to apply Early Decision to a prestigious liberal arts college. Before this SAT, my math score was very strong, and my writing score was okay, but my critical reading score was horrible.

I believe that my critical reading score will go up by about 150 points on my most recent test. The score reports for the October SAT come out on October 25th, and my Early Decision deadline is November 15th.

Here is the catch: I wrote my SAT essay in pen. (I know I'm stupid.) For those of you who don't know, if you write your essay in pen, it receives a score of 0 because the scanner cannot scan pen. Therefore, I am going to request that my essay be hand scored. (I have already researched it; for a fee of $55 you can have your essay hand graded even if it was written in pen.) I will have to fill out a Score Verification Sheet in order to have my essay hand graded. Here is the link for a Verification Sheet: http://sat.collegeboard.org/SAT/publ...ation-form.pdf
I have also read that score verifications take up to 5 weeks to be reported.

Here's the problem: It is crucial that I get my critical reading score back before November 15h. I do not want to self-report a low critical reading score. October 25th + 5 weeks goes past November 15th.

What should I do? If I request that my essay be hand graded (and nothing else) will my score report be delayed 5 weeks? I am satisfied with my writing score from a previous test, but I think I nailed this writing section (probably beat my old score by 50 pts if the essay is not given a 0).

Thanks for the help!

Nutmeg22 · 10-08-2012, 04:47 PM

bump

help anyone?

coolpillow · 10-08-2012, 05:04 PM

"If the student did not follow the published guidelines and writes the essay in pen the: :
Essay score does not change
Score verification fee is not refunded..."

sorry.

SAT Reasoning Test - Verifying SAT Scores

drusba · 10-08-2012, 05:59 PM

This is something you will need to take up with the College Board. The information given on the CB's site is conflicting: the form you cite seems to say you can have an essay written in pen re-scored and the score will change while the page coolpillow cites seems to say the opposite. As to delaying scores, that is something you also need to have CB tell you. My guess is that a score verification request does not delay the sending of the uncorrected score that you have ordered sent (such as by designating a college in your test app as one to receive scores upon release) but can result in your being able to submit a corrected score to the college. However, score verification (of any kind) does take weeks and you face a real risk that the corrected score will not arrive in time for consideration of your early decision application. However, you really need to contact CB to determine the issue..

ClassicLays · 10-09-2012, 02:26 AM

Follow drusba's directions and contact CB to avoid wasting money. Cite that the form describes the use of ink does not scan properly and that the form explicitly states that they will rescore an essay that will not scan properly.

Since you are applying ED, email your college ASAP and tell them there might be a slight delay. Say that you believe you made a mistake and will be requesting the rescore service (be vague so they don't think you can't follow instructions). They will most likely be understanding; if not, well... sorry but you should've paid attention.

Hogie1112 · 10-09-2012, 12:58 PM

From what I've heard the essay is only 22% of your total writing score. This being said if you do perfect and get all writing multiple choice right you still can receive 700 and even a little above. I'm not sure if this is true and I know your score can only go up with the essay being scored above 0 but it might put you at ease to know it is a minute portion of your score if your essay can't be hand graded. Just my two cents..

Nutmeg22 · 10-09-2012, 05:59 PM

Thanks for the advice everybody! I have not ordered my scores to be sent to any colleges yet, so I'm not in danger of sending an incorrect score, thankfully.

I think I'm going to follow drusba's advice and call CB and I'll be sure to cite the form that I linked in my original post.

One more question: I asked my high school counselor what I should do, and she said that I shouldn't self-report my highest scores on my commonapp (Meaning that I should just leave the SAT section of the commonapp blank) and rely on the the admissions staff at my ED College to look at the official score reports sent by CB. Would this be a safe thing to do? They will look at my official SAT score reports, right? not just the scores that I self-report?

I can imagine that College Board is frustrated that sometimes essays are written in pen, but they should be reasonable. The SAT is a huge test and it's unreasonable that I be penalized so harshly. I'm willing to be the $55 fee... I just hope everything goes over smoothly.

Why couldn't I have just written my essay in pencil? lol

ptontiger13 · 10-10-2012, 04:17 AM

10charlimit

Nutmeg22 · 10-13-2012, 10:33 AM

I called College Board and here is what they said:

The essay might be graded anyway, although they do not recommend writing in pen.
I should wait until I get my scores back on Oct 25th before I submit a score verification sheet.
The extra score verification takes 3 to 5 weeks to process, however it can be sent directly to the school that I apply to Early Decision. This means that I cannot self-report my scores on my commonapp, but colleges will see a legitimate writing score.

Nutmeg22 · 10-30-2012, 12:51 PM

*bumping 2 weeks later* (for anybody else that ever has this issue)

I got my score report back 1 day late after I called College Board (not sure if this had to do with the essay). My essay score was very low and the first half of my essay did not scan (I wrote only the first half in pen.). I have Early Decision that I'm going to follow through on November 15th to an elite Liberal Arts College. I am not going to self-report my SAT scores on the commonapp due to my writing score being incorrect. Instead, I will be in contact with an admissions representative to my Early Decision choice and they will use the offial score reports from College Board to see and judge my SAT. That being said, the score verification will take 3-5 weeks and Early Decision is due on November 15th and comes back on December 16th. I have a very small margin to get my SAT's in on time and I hope they are still accepted and looked at..