Have you heard about the SAT Glitch that affected thousands of test takers over this weekend? Some students experienced a glitch that caused their test to be submitted 30 minutes early. They tested normally through the Reading/Writing modules but were cut off on the second math module. This occurred internationally and in the US. Students testing in the Eastern time zone were most likely to be affected. Students who were taking the test with extended time were impacted by the SAT glitch even more egregiously.
Some proctors were able to circumvent the glitch by having students log out and back in, but that also took time– at least seven minutes for logging back in and then waiting for the proctor to approve each student’s re-entry. The module is only 35 minutes long and most students take the full time.
CollegeBoard addressed the issue quickly, contacting proctors during the testing and emailing families within 24 hours. The full timeline is given in the Forbes’ article “The March SAT Test Crisis: What Happened and How Students Can Navigate the Chaos.” Now those testers have a choice to make.
Should I Take the Retake?
CollegeBoard has offered students affected by the glitch a free retake and refund on their initial testing fee. If they take that option, their scores on the initial test will not be reported or revealed to the student.
Should students who tested without accommodations take that option?
Short answer: no. Students were experiencing a normal test up to the final module. Their reading score should reflect their ability in that section. The Common Application, used by most colleges, gives an opportunity to explain inconsistencies, so any affected student has that opportunity to explain the math score.
They do have to take the test again for a math score that reflects their abilities. The next national test dates are the following:
- May 3, 2025
- June 7, 2025
- August 23, 2025
Book this new test separately.
Exception
If any student feels like the test wasn’t going well from the start, they should take the refund. If the student was feeling unwell or was unfocused for personal reasons, the SAT glitch is a great opportunity to start fresh.
The Good News about the SAT Glitch
Most schools use superscoring on their applications, so check your individual schools. Superscoring means the school looks at the highest overall score on each section. The people reviewing the application only see the highest score, not each one. In those schools, this glitch will not register and the reading score your student earned should be in the running.
CollegeBoard states that they have fixed the issue so that it will never happen again.
Students may be able to avoid similar issues in future by logging out of their CollegeBoard account and logging back in just before testing, which will update the platform with any fixes that were made recently.
Please contact us if you’d like to discuss your specific case.
This article was co-authored by Anna Solomon and Heather Krey of World Class Tutoring.
Photo credit: Meghan Hessler
