Remember the SATs? While thankfully I don’t have to take them ever again, there’s a good chance as a school counselor I will be running or proctoring them at some point during my career.  Over the weekend I had the opportunity to work with one of the counselors at WHS and run the SATs. While not every school is a testing site for the SATs and not all school counselors are the ones running the SATs at their school, understanding the ins and outs of the College Board and the detail involved in running the SATs is an important tool for any school counselor to have.
From assigning rooms to ensuring that there are enough proctors to cover all of the reasoning tests, subject tests, listening tests and non-standard tests (for students who are eligible for accommodations) to counting and recounting test books and answer sheets, the tasks themselves aren’t anything to write home about, but they are a part of the process. Before test day, we had to assign students to different rooms and then print room lists. We had to ensure that each room had the proper number of desks. For students with accommodations, we had to ensure that their accommodations were similar enough to be in the same room as students with different accommodations (most students needed extended time). We had to determine whether or not we could take stand-by students on the day of the test and see if we had tests for students who may not have registered noting that they needed accommodations. We had to make sure the building would be unlocked and the rooms would be open. All of this before the test even started!
At 7:15 on Saturday morning, we began SAT testing day. We were rechecking lists and registering stand by students. We were answering questions about taking more than one subject test and helping kids who had forgotten their ID or their CD player for the listening test. Once they had all made it to their rooms, we were answering calls for more test booklets or questions about students who weren’t showing up on class lists. And once the test began, we were giving breaks to the proctors and beginning to complete all of the information for the College Board – proctor information so they could be paid, number of students taking the test, number of students who were absent, number of students who were stand-bys…lots of numbers and data.
Once the students were finished with their tests and had been dismissed, we began counting and recounting answer booklets and test booklets and inputting the numbers into the College Board’s system. We had to make sure the proctors had completed seating charts and had returned whatever they had taken at the start of the day. Finally, we packaged the materials up and shipped them off.
While it’s not the most exciting way for a school counselor to spend their Saturday, it certainly is a task that I’m glad I was exposed to during my internship. Not only is the understanding of how the process works important if I ever find myself supervising the SATs, but the experience of having helped run the SATs is certainly something I can mention when I begin the job search process! And, it reminded me just how glad I am that I don’t have to take them ever again…