After spending months and the , I found preparing for the SAT Subject Tests much easier. I was already, you might say, prepared for preparing for tests. Still, there was something that I was not prepared for ? waiting for two whole months to receive my scores.
Some of the colleges I applied to required SAT Subject Tests, and even for the colleges where SAT Subject Tests were not mandatory, it is always recommended. The subject test measures your readiness for college-level courses and is offered for many subjects, ranging from science to language and literature. In one sitting, you can take as many as three, and as few as none of these tests (you can always cancel a test, even all of them, if you do not feel like you did well on it).
Being a science student, I selected three science subjects ? physics, chemistry, and mathematics level 2. I took the test on November 3, and the results were supposed to be published on November 23.
On that day, some of my friends from the USEF/Education USA Advising Center gathered at an internet café and looked at each other?s scores one by one. I waited impatiently for my turn, with the slow internet connection adding up to my impatience. Finally, I logged in to my College Board profile and clicked on the link that was supposed to display my test scores. But instead of the test score, all I got was a blank!
I did not have a clue what was going on. I was not alone though; I heard from my friends of three other people at USEF whose scores were not published that day. The next day, I talked to them and it turned out that, like me, they did not know why their test scores were not published.
My plan had been simple. Take the SAT subject tests, send the scores to the college where I was applying early, wait for the decision, if I got rejected (I did), send the test scores to the colleges where I was applying regular decision, and wait for the decisions to come. Instead I found myself stuck in the middle. I could not send my subject test scores to the college where I was applying early decision and I just made it in time for my regular decision schools.
The most frustrating days of my life were those days when I waited patiently, checking every day if the scores were out. While my friends worked on their applications, I was stuck making calls to the College Board and colleges explaining my situation and trying to get a resolution. With the early decision deadline already long gone and the regular decision deadlines approaching, most of my applications were at stake.
My friends whose scores had also not been published on the original date eventually did receive their results ? it turned out that they had made some mistake while filling in their personal details. But I still had no news and no idea of what had gone wrong with my test. I was stuck wondering, why me?
I called the College Board many times to get an update, any update at all, about my scores. After about 15 minutes of listening to some utterly boring jazz hold music, I would be connected to an operator. After a further 15 minutes of going through all my personal details, we would get down to business. Each time it was the same conversation:
your profile verification is complete. Is there anything I can help you with
?Yes, my scores are not published yet. I need my scores soon for my early decision college and I would go on for a few minutes explaining the situation.
Instead of a definite answer, I got the same response every time I called. ?We are sorry for the inconvenience. I have forwarded your query to the escalation department. Is there anything else I can help you with
?Yes! When will the scores be published? I REALLY need the scores out soon.?
?You will be contacted should we have any further updates within five business days. Is there anything else I could help you with
(Sigh) ?No. Thank you.?
On December 17, 25 days after the score release date, seven days after I got the rejection letter from my early decision college, and 15 days before the deadlines of my regular decision colleges, I got a letter from the College Board. Finally!
And finally I learned the source of the problem. The letter explained that I had not indicated clearly on my answer sheet which tests I took. On top of every page of the answer sheet, there is a checkbox to indicate which subject test the answers below are for. I had missed that particular checkbox on one of my answer sheets.