June 09--Because of a printing error, sections of the June 6 SAT college entrance exam will not be graded but students will still receive scores for the important standardized test, officials said.
Some sections of the exam instructed students that they had 25 minutes to complete the questions while other paperwork had the correct time of 20 minutes. The printing mistakes happened in either Section 8 or 9, depending on the edition of the exam, according to the College Board, the nonprofit that oversees the SAT. Scores are used by many colleges and universities as part of the admissions package.
The College Board conducted an analysis and decided not to grade the affected sections. Administrators said in a statement that the test is "designed to collect enough information to provide valid and reliable scores."
"We have deliberately constructed [the test] to include three equal sections with roughly the same level of difficulty," the statement said. "If one of the three sections is jeopardized, the correlation among sections is sufficient to be able to deliver reliable scores."
The printing error occurred in the test booklets used by students in the United States, according to a letter from the College Board sent to test takers on Monday. The letter sought to reassure students that their scores are valid and that results will be received within the normal time frame.
About 487,000 students took the test on June 6. Editions of the SAT administered on other days were not affected.
