New Security Measures Announced for SAT Test Takers

Attention parents of high school students: getting into the SAT tests this Saturday may be more difficult that you think. After a 2011 scandal in Great Neck where students hired stand-ins to take their SAT tests, the College Board and the Educational Testing Service vowed to tighten up security and even hired former FBI Director Louis Freeh to review SAT security protocols.

As a result, changes have been implemented in Scarsdale that will impact all students taking exams this Saturday. Dean Michael Gibbs, the SAT Testing Supervisor, has advised parents and students of the following new regulations:

• First, no test taker will be admitted without a valid admission ticket for that morning's test at Scarsdale High School.
• Changes to test center, test date or test type (SAT to Subject Tests and vice-versa) will no longer be permitted. All students must have an admission ticket for a specific test/type of testing room.
• Students may no longer walk in as stand-by candidates. Only students with valid admission tickets for Scarsdale High School will be admitted.
• Students who register late and have specially marked admission tickets will only be seated once all registered test takers are admitted, and only if additional supplies and staff are available.
• As of March 2012, all admission tickets must have a photo on them, and that photo must be recognizable so that student images can be matched to the photo ID the student must bring on testing day. Prior to March, the admission ticket is not required to have a photo, but if it does, it must match the student's photo ID. No student may be seated without photo identification, even if that students is known to test center staff.
• Also new this year: Student's gender and date of birth will appear on the roster and on the admission ticket, and must match that information which will also be on the admission ticket.
• Finally, more stringent cell phone restrictions will be applied. Students are not to have cell phones out at any time during the testing day, even during breaks. If a student does bring a cell phone to the testing center, it should be turned off and kept out of sight until the student leaves the building at completion of testing. Failure to do so may result in the student's dismissal from the test center and cancellation of the morning's testing.