Harvard Set to Handle SAT Score Glitch

Harvard officials said yesterday that a scoring error on the SAT exam in October would not affect admissions decisions for students seeking spots in the Class of 2010.

The College Board announced this week that it incorrectly scored the SAT exams of over 4,000 students who took the test in October 2005. Affected students received scores up to 100 points lower than their actual scores due to technical problems in the scoring process, the board said yesterday.

The College Board identified the problem in December, said Brian O’Reilly, the executive director of SAT information and services for the board.

When two high school seniors asked for their tests to be graded by hand and received scores significantly higher than those from the machine, the College Board investigated all SAT scoring from the October, November, and December administrations of the test.

The College Board has notified those students and schools adversely affected by the erroneous scoring, which represent only .8% of the total number of students who took the SAT in October, the board said in a statement.

The College Board will not notify students or colleges in cases where the scoring error resulted in students receiving higher test results.

O’Reilly played down the impact of the erroneous scores on the admissions process.

“Only five percent of the affected students saw score increases of 100 points or more” said O’Reilly. “If their SAT score wasn’t quite strong enough but their high school record and their extracurricular activities were strong, then their SAT score wouldn’t have kept them out of college anyway.”

According to a statement from Harvard College’s Office of Admissions, only about four dozen Harvard applicants were affected by the scoring mistake. “No student’s admission decision has been, or will be, affected by those scoring errors,” the admissions office statement read. “Immediately after receiving the corrected scores we updated our database and computer reports and identified for our staff all those for whom incorrect scores had been reported.”

Bruce J. Breimer, the director of college guidance at the Collegiate School in New York City, de-emphasized the importance of the scoring mistake for admissions for the class of 2010.

“It’s embarrassing and infuriating, but I don’t think that many students will be hurt by it,” Breimer said. “It came out just in time to be fixed; if that 100 points makes a difference, there’s still time for the college to make amends on the behalf of the College Board.”

But Breimer said he does not wholly support the College Board. He said he believes that the erroneous scoring reveals fundamental flaws in the College Board, a non-profit association.

“I think the problems of the College Board transcend this one incident,” Breimer said. “Because they are a monopoly, they have power in an unaccountable way...The SAT is the flagship test and it’s their way or the highway. If they make a mistake, no one can do anything about it.”

Alex Rabens, a senior at the Head-Royce School in Oakland, Calif., who applied early to Harvard for the Class of 2010 and was deferred, said he believes that the SAT problems only add more stress to an already agonizing period.

“High school seniors have so much to worry about already in a process that’s getting more and more competitive every year,” Rabens said. “The last thing we need to worry about is our trust in a grader or a computer.”