ACT offers retest after losing exams

Max Zahn

Though many college application deadlines have come and gone, the score sheets for 53 high school students who took the ACT test in October at Roslyn High School remain missing. ACT announced last Thursday a free makeup exam will be provided to the affected students on Jan. 14.

“ACT has worked with the courier service to track possible missing materials, and an extensive search of the test center has been conducted, but the missing answer documents have not yet been found,” ACT said in a statement. “We are taking every possible step to locate the answer sheets and are hopeful that they will be found soon.”

Scores are usually delivered to students within two to eight weeks, according to ACT’s website.

Tarah DeSousa, the spokeswoman for the ACT, said the testing company had “communicated with impacted students and notified them of the retest date on January 14.”

She said situations of this kind have occurred in the past, but they are rare.

“The ACT always arranges for a retest for students impacted by this type of situation,” she said.

The Roslyn school district said in a statement that it was “informed by the ACT test coordinator that all proper protocols were followed on site.”

DeSousa said three packages from the test center were shipped out and received by ACT.

A total of 258 students took the exam at Roslyn High School on Oct. 22, the district said.

The missing score sheets belonged to students who did not choose to complete the ACT’s optional 40-minute writing section, Newsday reported.

Affected students and their parents have expressed frustration over the mishap, and disbelief about the effectiveness of the remedy.

Cameron Sherry, a senior at Chaminade High School in Mineola, applied to colleges under early action programs, which often have November deadlines. The deadlines for her remaining regular decision applications are in early January, she told Newsday.

“I studied countless hours for the exam. I had a tutor for it, and I had to juggle that with my regular academic work and athletic life,” she told Newsday. “I have to make a decision to try to cram in two weeks of studying, right before the test, which is not enough time.”

DeSousa said the ACT realized the scores were missing in the week before announcing the retest.

She could not determine whether both the original test scores and the retest scores would be considered valid if the score sheets are discovered after the Jan. 14 retest.

In addition to offering the retest free of charge, the ACT will reimburse the cost of the October test, the ACT said in a statement.

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