![Holding up T-wolves, the tour group poses for a picture in the Chinese classroom. Sophomore Lydia Ou, junior Phu Trung and senior Yushan Pan gave a tour to Taiwanese diplomat Andrea Yang on Nov. 8. “I was so excited when I heard I would get to give the tour because it’s a big deal,” Ou said. “She’s from the US embassy for Taiwan, so she’s really important. I’m so privileged [to get this opportunity] and I’m so excited.” Photo by Skyler King](https://bestofsno.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Main-Taiwan.jpg)
When Hailey Sekhon checked her Advanced Placement exams scores in July she was shocked to find her AP Microeconomics score was marked as “N/A.”
“I wasn’t really worried about it at first,” Sekhon, a senior, said. After about a month with her score still not being updated, she and her parents decided to contact College Board, the company that develops and administers standardized tests such as the SAT and all AP exams.
Sekhon was told she would not be getting her score back. Her test was missing.
Marsha Brinkley, the Lightridge testing coordinator, oversees AP exams. When she returned from summer break had received an email about Sekhon’s exam.
“I had a very weird email we thought was spam,” said Brinkley, who described the email as atypical in format and tone from others she has received from College Board.
A week passed, and Brinkley got a call from Educational Testing Service (ETS), a College Board subsidiary company. ETS develops standardized tests primarily for kindergarten through high school in the United States. As Brinkley explained it, all tests get shipped to ETS, who then scores them. The person on the other side of the phone briefly explained that 2/3rds of Sekhon’s test was missing.
“I asked, what’s next? The person had zero information for me,” Brinkley said.
Sekhon did everything she was instructed and had the exact instructions as other tests.
“When I was taking that test, I was stickering it like I was supposed to,” Sekhon said.
Brinkley thinks the exam got stuck or damaged in the scantron machine, and ETS couldn’t fix it to see the score.
“If it were on me, or the school, or Loudoun County, they (College Board) would not be giving options,” Brinkley said.
Brinkley has been in the county for fifteen years, and a missing exam has never happened to her or any of the testing coordinators she is close to. Many AP exams have been going digital over the past few years to prevent issues like this.
“I think digital is the best option because kids have grown up with technology and online tests,” Brinkley said. “I thought it was flawless when we did the digital tests.”
Sara Sympson, Director of Communications for College Board, commented on the idea of making more AP exams digital.
“Unfortunately, sometimes AP Exam answer sheets do go missing, “ said Sympson. “ In an effort to prevent this and ensure greater test security, most AP Exams will be moved to College Board’s Bluebook digital testing application in May 2025. This eliminates the need for schools and College Board to manage the shipping and handling of test materials.”
Through questioning via email and phone calls, Brinkley discussed options with Sekhon regarding what to do. Because only a third of the test was available, Sekhon’s only options were canceling and getting a refund or retaking the whole test.
“Mr. Kim (Sekhon’s AP Econ teacher from last year) gave me two books on how to get a five, so I plan on doing practice problems,” Sekhon said. That’s how she studied before, so she plans to do the same thing again, hoping to get a score representing what she learned from the class.
Sekhon hopes to do as well on this exam as she would on the one that went missing.
Sekhon plans to retake the test on October 18. With such an important date approaching, she has a lot of studying to do.
This story was originally published on The Bolt Report on October 17, 2024.