Pandemic Causes Widespread Test Cancellation
by AJ Tenser, ’23
As college application deadlines approach, students around the country have found themselves applying to college not having taken a standardized test, due to a wave of cancellations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, testing facilities, both locally and around the country, have closed their doors, leaving upperclassmen without their standardized testing and without a schedule for when they could make them up.
In past years, standardized tests have been cornerstones of applications, but this year some schools have gone test optional due to the impacts of COVID-19. Changing the application process helps to relieve the pressure on students who may not have access to an open testing center.
“For kids who can’t get tested, [colleges] will look at other factors more heavily, like their transcript […] and their essays and recommendations,” GFA Director of College Guidance Michael Pina said.
Unlike many other schools, GFA anticipated the closure of testing facilities and took initiative by offering testing at the school, largely for seniors.
Optional testing gives the student choice whether or not to use the scores. Since GFA students have access to testing, this choice gives students “the best of both worlds,” said Pina. “If [the scores] are good [the students] can use them, and if they are not, they will use the things that have been traditional strengths, which are their experiences, their resilience and how they perform here at school, both in the community and in the classroom.”
To underclassmen and seniors, Pina recommends that just because testing is optional, that does not mean that those eligible should opt out and not prepare.
“There are some places that might require testing, as you learn, that you might be interested in,” he said.
To seniors directly, Pina said, “The schools that say are score optional, they keep reiterating and emphasizing that they are score optional, so if you can’t test or you didn’t test well, don’t use them.”
Overall, the majority of surveyed seniors said that they have been negatively impacted by their experience with standardized testing this year. The root of these stresses is primarily due to the cancellations of said tests.
“In addition to worrying about getting applications done, you now have to worry about figuring out when to take the test and being able to get a test in with scores that you like before application deadlines,” senior Rari Bellingeri said.
“The way that I hope that we as a school can allay some of those fears, is by utilizing the facilities that we have, the extraordinary partnerships that we have and having other opportunities for our students to test here in an environment that we can control,” Pina said.
“We have been lucky and diligent about what we are doing,” he added. “We are all in this together.”