Dozens of high school students who sat for the grueling SAT exam on Staten Island in October were crushed to learn this week that their answer sheets had been lost, The Post has learned.
To add insult to injury, the College Board told some of the 30 students whose answers disappeared — including many from St. Joseph by the Sea in Annadale — that they can’t get priority seating at tomorrow’s administration of the exam because it’s already booked, parents said.
Instead, students were told that despite strict deadlines for early-action applications to colleges, they would have to wait until December to retake the hours-long exam.
“I was devastated,” Nicolette Barraco, a St. Joseph’s senior, said of learning about the bungle.
“I put so much time and effort into this,” she added. “It’s definitely a lot of stress applying to colleges. I need to get all my information out, and it’s just the last thing I needed.”
Barraco said she took classes three nights a week and studied for months to raise her score on the college entrance exam.
Her mom, Debra, was livid that the company that screwed up didn’t seem too anxious to make amends.
“They won’t even help us. They won’t do anything for us,” she told The Post. “I feel they need to do something for these kids — give them a special test, a makeup test, and they’re refusing.”
A spokesman for the Educational Testing Service confirmed that 770 students sat for the Oct. 6 administration of the SAT exam at Tottenville HS — but that only 740 answer sheets arrived at a scanning center.
“We typically schedule a makeup as quickly as possible — we’re working on a date for that,” said ETS spokesman Tom Ewing. “We’ll give the students the option of taking that test or to cancel and get a refund or to take the test the next time it’s offered.”
Tomorrow’s administration is a makeup SAT date for an earlier cancellation caused by Hurricane Sandy, according to FairTest public-education director Bob Shaeffer.
Taking the next scheduled SAT on Saturday, Dec. 1 would normally be too late for many schools’ Early Admissions/Early Action deadlines. But the families may be able to get an extension if they explain the “lost-test” situation.