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SAT泄题,ACT系统瘫痪?哈佛教育学硕士教你如何应对考试乱象

2018年09月26日

面对考试乱象,中国留学生该如何应对?

本文作者:Hamilton Gregg

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哈佛教育学硕士,拥有30年教育经验的权威教育专家。曾在日本、韩国、美国、瑞士等国家的一些顶级学校内担任过招生官及其他要职工作。荣获美国大学招生咨询协会 NACAC 和美国海外升学指导协会 IACAC 的认定并成为长期会员。同时,他还是美国独立教育咨询协会 IECA 董事委员会会员。

From the last time I wrote about standardized testing more has transpired. Both SAT and ACT have had more issues.

上次我写了关于标化考试泄题的文章。现在SAT和ATC也出现了更多的问题。

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Let’s start with SAT. After the report that the August test had been compromised scores have been released. There seems to be an inordinate number of students with whom I am associated one way or another who scored very well on the test.  I raised the issue of the testing situation with some university representatives a week or so ago and the question was raised whether schools would be skeptical of the scores students received.  While not entirely skeptical, the reps did say they would take the overall situation into account when considering scores from the August test.

先说SAT。报告后,八月测试成绩已经公布,和我有关联的学生中,高分学生似乎特别多。大约一周前,就考试情况以及学校是否会质疑此次分数的问题,我询问了一些大学代表。代表们表示虽不会完全质疑但会就总体情况衡量八月测试分数。

Further along those lines, not everyone who took the test has received their scores. Placing them in no man’s land wondering if their scores will be released or cancelled.  So once again, students are paying the price for an issue caused by College Board.

而且,并不是每位考生都收到了成绩。这就让没收到成绩的考生不得不担忧他们的分数是否会发布或是被作废。再一次,学生为大学委员会犯下的错背了锅。

At the beginning of last week, in Florida, a student filed a Class Action suit against College Board and ETS (the test administrators). The interesting thing is that the lawsuit claims, “Rather than accept the responsibility and acknowledge its errors, the College Board, and by association, ETS, appear to blame students for their failure to keep the exam secure.”* Which is interesting that both organizations responsible for the test are blaming students for recycled test questions. More on the lawsuit can be found in this article from the Washington Post, and the quote is from the piece by Valerie Strauss.

上周初,佛罗里达的一位学生对大学委员会以及ETS(测试管理员)提起了集体诉讼。有意思的是,诉讼声称“大学委员会非但没有承认错误、承担责任,反倒与ETS一起责怪学生未能维护考试的保密性”,负责考试的这两所机构却将回收试题的问题怪罪于学生,这就有意思了。(关于此次诉讼的更多信息请见Washington Post,引用自Valerie Strauss。)

What is also quite interesting is that College Board and ETS are very aware of how test prep companies get ahold of the material and yet are blaming students for what students do for any test – prepare. And when the stakes are high, they will go where they think they can get the best advice or information.

另外一件非常有趣的事是,大学委员会和ETS非常清楚考试培训机构获取材料的方式,而他们却因学生为考试所做的准备而责怪学生。当风险增高时,他们就会去寻求最好建议或信息。

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Now on to the ACT fiasco. This last Saturday was the first ACT online test. Held around the world schools were frantically working with their in school Technical staff to get the platform up and running. Lest one think that this all went smoothly, it did not. Aside from technical glitches that forced students to be unable to complete one section of the test and move on to the next section and losing time trying to sort it out, students had their registrations cancelled. One of the functions –the Pause button, that would allow students to pause the test if there was a technical issue during the test, had been disabled for all international test centers. No test administrator had been forewarned and when calling the help line, some administrators were told to unplug the computer.

现在来看一下ACT的惨状。上周六进行了ACT第一次线上测试。全球的学校以及学校技术员都手忙脚乱地启动运行考试平台。不要以为一切顺利,实际上却出现了故障。除了技术上的小故障,这些故障导致学生不能完成测试的一个部分并进行下一步,在这个问题上浪费了很多时间,此外,学生的注册被莫名取消了。还有一个功能是暂停按钮,若测试期间出现技术问题,学生可以暂停测试,但其被所有国际考试中心禁用,而且没有预先告知考试管理员,在拨打热线求助时,一些管理员却被告知拔掉计算机插头以作处理。

Schools that offered the ACT were sent this: “Important message from ACT: As you know, ACT conducted its first two days of computer-based testing at our international ACT test centers this weekend. The large majority of international examinees were able to successfully complete their ACT test and appreciated the new format. Some international test centers, however, did experience technical and administration issues that unfortunately prevented some students from completing their test. ACT takes these issues very seriously, and we sincerely apologize to those students impacted by them. We understand the importance of ACT scores to students, and we are diligently working to determine the best options for affected students. These options may include retesting, arranged testing, and rescheduling to a future test date. We will be working individually with each impacted student in the coming week to determine which option best meets their needs. Thank you.”

提供ACT考试的学校收到了以下信息:“来自ACT的重要信息:就您所知,本周末在国际ACT中心ACT实行了首次为期两天的线上测试。大多数考生都顺利完成了考试而且非常认可这种新形式。然而,一些国际测试中心出现了技术和管理问题,而且很不幸,这些问题导致一些学生未能完成测试。ACT会认真处理这些问题,并向受到影响的考生表示深切的歉意。我们理解ACT分数对学生的重要性,会努力为受到影响的学生提供最佳的选择。补偿选项:重新进行本次考试、安排新考试以及安插在未来某场考试中。在下周我们会私下与每位受到影响的考生联系,以期最能满足学生需求的选择。谢谢!”

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At the heart of all this is the anxiety that students feel in what is already an insane process. They go forward wondering if they will be able to take a test, whether the test conditions will allow them to finish, whether their scores will be released or the test cancelled. As mentioned previously the students are the victims here. I do not think that the SAT event was one of cheating, as in previous occurrences. The August mess is on College Board. ACT, well, one might forgive an inaugural event, but really! Sort the issues out the Spring before, not the first test of the testing season.

在此无比混乱的过程中,最严重的是考生们焦虑不安的情绪。他们忐忑不安,担心未来自己是否还能参加考试、考试条件是否允许他们完成测试以及分数是否会发布或是考试将会作废。正如之前提到的,学生也深受其害。我认为,SAT事件如之前发生的一样并非作弊事件。大学委员会在八月乱成一团糟。对于ACT,好吧,人们会谅解它是初次实行,但也确实不该出现这样的失误!这些问题应该在春季前处理好,而不是留到考试季的首考。

I feel for the students, but I also place a bulk of the blame on universities and colleges, which still require standardized testing. Yes, I know there are some schools that have to use scores, but in reality they are quite few in comparison.

对于学生,我感同身受,并且,我也发表了言论谴责仍然要求标化测试的大学和学院。不过,我也知道有些学校不得不需要这些分数,但实际上,相比之下这些学校仍是少数。

Calling all colleges and universities – It’s time to stop subjecting students to this chaos!

呼吁所有的学院和大学-是时候阻止学生陷入这场混乱了!

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