After a printing error caused confusion for students sitting for the June 6 SAT, the College Board said it will not be scoring the affected sections; it will waive the fee for any students who would like to take the exam again in October, but claims re-taking is not necessary.

"In the test administered on June 6, test booklets said students would have 25 minutes to complete the final of three reading sections of the exam. Proctors, however, were given instructions that students would have only 20 minutes for that section," according to The New York Times.

This mistake, which was in the final section of the test, caused confusion for both students and proctors. College Board spokesman Zach Goldberg told the Times in an e-mail that the company will pay for students who say their experience was negatively impacted by the error, but that the company is confident the exam's scores will be accurate despite not including the two sections.

"In an earlier official statement, the board, which sets policy for the exam, apologized for the error and said 'the affected sections will not be scored and we will still be able to provide reliable scores for all students,'" the Times said.

Test experts are not sure about how fair throwing out the sections of the test will be on the scores, as less questions make the existing ones worth more. Some, according to the Times, are criticizing the College Board for picking an easy but not necessarily fair solution.

As for the students, given the importance of the test, many are stressed over what impact the error and solution will have on their scores.

"Palmer Morris, a rising senior at Southside Christian School in Simpsonville, S.C., said he had already taken the SAT two times before the June 6 exam. He wants to attend the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and has been trying to raise his scores," the article said.

Read the full story here and comment below.

Article by Nicole Gorman, Education World Contributor

06/17/2015