Test scores lost

The Educational Testing Service (ETS) lost all of the multiple choice sections from Blair students' Advanced Placement (AP) Chemistry exams during processing last summer, forcing students to either retake the lost portion of the test, cancel their scores for a refund or receive a projected score based on the free response questions.

Of the 41 students who took the test, 26 chose to accept their projected scores, ten chose to retake the lost section and five chose to cancel their scores, according to ETS spokesman Tom Ewing. Students will retake the multiple choice sections on Wednesday, Oct 17.

ETS processed approximately 1.4 million AP tests this year and lost fewer than 100 of them, Ewing said. ETS policy states that if testing materials are lost, the company will provide projected grades calculated from the remaining portions. If students decide to report these projected grades to colleges, a message accompanying the report will notify schools that the score reflects only half of the original exam. Only about 60 percent of projected grades correspond with the actual ones, according to a letter from AP Services.

Despite the options ETS gave students, many students and teachers were nevertheless upset. "Things like this happen, but it was still very disappointing,” said AP Chemistry teacher Glenda Torrence. "It was like we wasted a year preparing for one thing, and it falls through.”

The loss of tests proved especially disturbing for graduating seniors, as parent Joel Kanter pointed out in an e-mail sent to AP Chemistry students. Colleges often use AP tests to grant students accelerated placement or credit for college-level classes taken in high school.

In this case, entering freshmen will not receive new scores in time for fall enrollments and thus will forfeit college credit, he wrote.

Kanter has not taken any legal action yet, but plans to have his attorney write a letter asking ETS for "additional remedy” since a lost high score could mean $2,500 worth of lost credit hours.

Kanter's daughter, Rebecca, is a freshman at the University of Rochester. Her projected score of three did not place her in an advanced chemistry course. She now uses the same textbook she studied at Blair.

When she found out about the lost sections of the exams, she was very upset. "You pay 76 bucks to take their insane packet tests and they lose or throw it away,” she said. "It's just ridiculous and really negligible.”