Technical issues prevent some local students from taking digital PSAT
Standardized college admission tests are transitioning from paper and pencil to computer screens.
First, the PSAT this year, then the SAT next year.
“This was sort of the big launch, the PSAT this year because that’s when the vast majority of students will be taking their first digital test,” explained Mike Goldstein, who runs Goldstein SAT Prep.
In its first-ever digital PSAT last week, the College Board, which oversees the PSAT and SAT, ran into a few hiccups.
In a statement, the College Board said, “At the beginning of the digital PSAT administration … a surge in traffic on the application used by schools to set up and run administrations caused some schools to delay or be unable to begin testing.”
“I do know some of the College Board servers were overwhelmed, probably because the majority of juniors nationwide were taking the PSAT,” Goldstein said.
According to the College Board, more than 1.2 million students were eventually able to take the digital exam on Wednesday.
Goldstein says most of his students were able to complete the test.
“I was sort of expecting there to be a small number of issues with the PSAT just because the digital test is new for counselors, for schools, and it seems like that’s what came to pass,” Goldstein said, although he expects most of the kinks will be resolved in time for the digital SAT next year.
In a letter to parents, Oakland Catholic said a makeup PSAT exam will be administered this Wednesday for any student who couldn’t take the test last week.
The letter did not offer specifics for the makeup exam, but it did say the school, “is working to ensure MacBooks are updated with the appropriate software versions.”
“There were some incidents I think at some schools. It could be a front-end issue because students have to download an application from the College Board onto their laptops or tablets, and if they haven’t downloaded that they can’t take the test,” Goldstein said.
Channel 11 reached out to Oakland Catholic for more information about specifically what led to the makeup test date but has not heard back.
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