Is it possible that a properly filled in score sheet could be graded improperly. Does anyone have any experience with having an answer sheet hand graded?
DS is a high ability student who consistently scores in the 98~99 percentile on standardized tests. He is very neat, meticulous and reliable. If he said he filled the score sheet in properly and bubbled each answer in the correct manner, I’m inclined to believe him.
On the 11/7 sitting he scored 740CR, 770M, 720W & 6E with no prep, not even a practice sitting. -4 on CR, -1 on W multiple choice, -1 & 1 omit on M. That 6E really hurt his writing score with only 1 multiple choice question wrong.
For the 12/5 sitting he decided to review the essay strategies because he had no idea about the formula required for a high score. We were all quite shocked to see a 650CR, 710M, 600W & 8E. A drop of 270 total points! He finished each section in a comfortable amount of time answering every question. Afterward he was very confident that he got none wrong on the math and felt he did very well on CR & W. He assumed he was finished with testing.
We are not sure how to proceed or if it’s even worth it. The main issue is that DS was planning on being finished with testing after the 12/5 test. Now, he needs to sit for the 1/23 session to have the ability to super score.
We are considering calling CB but do not expect to hear anything other than “scores can vary by sitting”. We really don’t want to be “one of those parents”, but I would bet my house that if he felt he got all of the math problems correct then he probably did.
We would appreciate comments by anyone who has experience with improperly scored tests and/or the hand grading option.
I have no experience with it but it sounds like you ought to go for it. I can’t see what it would hurt and it would put your mind at ease.
Why does he need to sit a third time? The second test has no value in super scoring but his original score was pretty respectable. Depending on where he plans to apply, he can use that score most anywhere.
I am intrigued by your question because my S scored significantly lower on his math score than he thought he did, also the 12/5 sitting. This was just a “let’s try one more” to see if he could hit his goal for the math score, and thought he did very well. He scored 30 points lowere than his previous sitting, and about 100 points less than he expected.
I would at least wait until the 29th so you can see how many questions your son got wrong. If he still doesn’t believe that his score is accurate, you could order hand-scoring or SAS.
If you take a look at the December SAT thread on the SAT Prep forum, you’ll notice that there was a lot of debate over questions in ALL of the sections.
The writing section was particularly tricky this time (I spent about a month only prepping for writing since it’s my weakest section, and I think that I would have gotten about -10 had I not prepped). Reading seemed rather ordinary, and Math was easier than normal, though there were a few “trick” questions.
I took around 6 full practice tests and found that my scores fluctuated between 1860 (granted, I was sick) to 2300. CB says that it controls tests so that the difficulty of one month’s test is compensated with a better curve, but that doesn’t account for a student’s ability to answer certain types of questions better than other types. Maybe this was just a bad test for your son. 2230 is a great score, anyways.
This is certainly a first world problem but DS is would like to go to either Caltech or MIT for physics. Unfortunately the 2230 is at the very bottom of the middle 50%.
Looks like the best course is to wait until the 29th and see what the score report says. We did pay for the SAS at the time of registration so we will also get that in time. I also found some older threads that indicated the hand scoring did help a couple of people.
DS is adamant that he did not get any wrong on the math section and could not have gotten more than 1 or 2 at most on CR & W. I guess we will see.
"DS is adamant that he did not get any wrong on the math section and could not have gotten more than 1 or 2 at most on CR & W. "
On the whole, I find that statement ridiculous. In the context of the present state of College Board affairs, it may just be slightly less than ridiculous.
Since the tests are originally machine graded, I don’t think it is very likely that an error was made, especially because he earned more points than he could have by mere chance assuming the machine was grading according to a different answer sheet. Even though he is adamant he answered every question correctly, there is always room for calculation errors, trick questions. A wrong answer to just a few of the questions would be enough to lower the score. However, based on the other scores, it might be worth asking. Also, as a reference, I was accepted to MIT with an SAT score about the same as his first one, so try not to stress the score too much!
I find it ridiculous that a “parent” would use the language of a child in stating support for the child’s understanding of his efforts. A parent knows that things can go wrong, even when a person has tended to excel on the whole, things happen to everyone that fall outside of the pattern.
A student, on the other hand, insists that there is nothing to be examined in their effort, in their work, on their part.
It is absurd that a parent would speak in the affirmative of a child’s “feelings” about his/ her performance. I don’t believe for one moment it is a parent who posted at all.
If only one section had gone down a lot, it would seem likely to be a mis-bubbling problem, as it is I wonder if he missed a few silly things out of overconfidence. My older son missed a “not” in a math problem and forgot to do a step in another math problem, so didn’t get the 800 he thought he had. Annoying to him - it may have kept him out of Caltech and MIT, but there were other parts of his application that were less than perfect. I suppose it might be possible that a stray mark somewhere on the answer sheet could have mucked up the reading too.
Given that it was writing that was the low score, I would not worry overly much about the first sitting - I think it’s good enough for MIT at least. Caltech is a bit more score driven. If there’s time I’d definitely look at the answer service and see what he can figure out as the likely cause. And if there’s a time issue with having it hand scored do that sooner rather than later.
@Waiting2exhale, as an adult I will keep most of my comments for you in my head. However, your attitude does bring to mind something my wife would say…“Thank you for your input.”
@mathmom we’re not overly worried about one test. It’s really just having one remaining test available for super scoring. DS is not interested in sitting for the ACT or the new SAT. Certainly, he will if it comes to that.
As I said above, this is really a first world problem. We were curious to see if anyone else had experience with the hand scoring option.
^seems odd. DD took both the Nov and Dec test, and found the December test to be easier. Her score went up almost 200 points…however she said they had a lot of ‘Joe Bloggs’ type questions(referring to math).
There’s a kid here on CC who had his test handscored after a misbubble incident, and his scores went down precipitously. I would be far more skeptical of the hand scoring than the machine scoring.
All the faith in the world in your kid does not give adequate reasons for not offering up a type of support in resilience. Such skills and characteristics are essential for both the college student and the parent of the college student.
Mathmom’s first sentence is one which should be given serious consideration - for it happens.
