A few weeks ago I registered my dismay with the the way the College Board was treating overseas SAT test-takers. Registration had been unavailable -- due, presumably, to the College Board's efforts to beef up its security procedures. To make matters worse, the College Board posted cryptic, discouraging messages that easily could have made registrants think that all testing centers were full for the rest of the calendar year.
Open for Business
That much has been rectified. This week the College Board opened registration -- for real -- on its international page. Anyone planning on taking the October SAT would be well served to sign up immediately in order to ensure a spot. They're going to fill up fast!
Everyone, that is, except students from three countries: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Korea. Those signups won't be available until next month. Elsewhere, there are a few countries with notable restrictions.
An Abundance of Caution
It's worth noting that Saudi Arabia and Korea are two of the US's biggest sources of international students. Korean students have a long tradition of applying to university in the United States. Pressure to earn the highest possible SAT scores, and gain entry to highly selective universities, is often intense. By contrast, thanks to a generous national scholarship program, Saudi Arabia has only recently been sending large numbers of students to the US and has not yet developed such a cutthroat attitude towards standardized testing. Egypt, of course, is changing by the day.
What, then, do these countries have in common? For the College Board, it all boils down to security. A cheating scandal rocked Korea earlier this year, forcing the cancellation of the May and June exams. When I was in Saudi Arabia several months ago, I heard stories about outright attempts to buy scores (one father approached a test administrator and, without blinking, asked "how much for a score?"). I can only imagine what it's like to administer a secure exam in the midst of a (mostly peaceful) revolution.
On Notice
Those three countries, plus twelve others, are listed on the College Board's "Additional Policies and Requirements" page. This page describes special registration procedures in certain countries and, most importantly, it lists those countries in which SAT Subject Tests are limited to as few as two dates.
Given the stories of fraud and the manifestly challenging task of administering hundreds of thousands of exams in 100+ countries, the College Board has to be careful. It's one thing to annoy a handful of test-takers. It would be quite another to undermine the legitimacy of America's most important college-entrance exam.
So, while I'm still not thrilled with the College Board's approach to public relations, I encourage students to tolerate its registration policies with patience. Let's face it, the best way to ace for students to ace the SAT is to learn the test material, either through self-studying or with an expert tutor, and practice, practice, practice.
The 99.9% of students who take the SAT honestly should be willing to band together -- across continents and oceans -- to ensure that that tiny fraction of bad apples doesn't get a single point that they don't deserve.
--Josh Stephens
Josh Stephens is ArborBridge's Director of International Development. He can be reached at Josh@ArborBridge.com.
