Anthrax affects SAT exams

Wednesday, Nov. 14, 2001 | 9:20 a.m.

SUN AND WIRE REPORTS

NEW YORK -- With thousands of unscored SAT exams apparently stuck in New Jersey post offices because of the anthrax scare, the College Board said it was contacting high school students and offering them a chance to retake the test or get a refund.

Four schools in Nevada are affected by the mail delays: Palo Verde High School in Las Vegas, Laughlin High in Laughlin, Eureka County High in Eureka and White Pine High in Ely. Attempts to reach spokesmen at Palo Verde and the Clark County School District today weren't successful.

The College Board, a New York-based higher education membership organization, owns the test, which is given seven times during the school year. But scoring of the $25 college entrance tests is conducted by the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, N.J.

The College Board estimates mail delays held up the answer sheets of as many as 7,800 students out of about 550,000 who took the test Oct. 13. That figure was based on the fact that ETS got none, or only some, of the answer sheets from 89 high schools and other test centers in this country and overseas.

More than 2 million students take the SAT each year, about half of them seniors. This is the height of the college application season.

Students may retake the test at no charge at the next scheduled sitting, Dec. 1, College Board spokesman John Hamill said Tuesday. But the College Board also plans several makeup tests, which will likely be scheduled for later in December. Test takers may also request a refund.

When students sign up for the test, they may ask the College Board to provide their scores free to up to four schools. The colleges and universities picked by affected students will be contacted and asked to be flexible in dealing with the students' applications, Hamill said.

If the delayed answer sheets from Oct. 13 eventually make it to ETS, but the student has already retaken the exam, they'll have the choice of sending colleges the higher of their two scores, he said.

The Trenton mail processing center and the Princeton post office were closed because of anthrax contamination last month. The Princeton post office was reopened Saturday, but the Trenton facility remains closed.