Problems with PSAT score delivery sparks anger at College Board
The College Board’s new online system to deliver test scores has, to be charitable, not gone as well as planned, with delays and other complications with PSAT/NMSQT results angering counselors and students and raising questions about how well it will work when the new SAT is soon unveiled.
The PSAT/NMSQT is the Preliminary SAT, the test that mostly sophomores and juniors take as a practice for the SAT and that provides scores used to qualify students for the National Merit Scholarship program. In October, more than 4 million students took the PSAT. Scores were expected by the end of the year, but the College Board released them only a week ago, about a month late. Sandra Riley, vice president for communications at the College Board, said the delay was caused by a new online system created to accommodate scoring reports for the newly designed SAT debuting in March.
Riley and other College Board officials say that scores are available online but that new protocols for accessing them have confused some counselors and students. But some say that scores do not seem to be available to some schools, that instructions for obtaining those that are available are confusing and that it can be difficult getting help from College Board representatives. Two routine outages on all College Board websites, one last week and one this week (from Tuesday at 6 p.m. Eastern through 7 a.m. Wednesday) are making it only more difficult for those still trying to get their scores.
Stacy Caldwell, vice president for the SAT and PSAT/NMSQT, said in an interview that the College Board had sent repeated emails to counselors to explain the new access rules and held many workshops as well as webinars Problems with PSAT score delivery sparks anger at College Board - The Washington Post: