Hundreds of East Bay students to retake exam after seating irregularities
PLEASANTON, Calif. (KGO) -- The advanced placement test scores of nearly 400 East Bay students are being tossed because the adults who administered the test didn't make sure students were seated the right way.
During the exam students are supposed to be seated 5-feet apart. According to the ETS, they found the distance was less than that in two classrooms and not every student was facing the same direction.
So in this case, the test will not count. Not every student was affected. Nearly 400 students who were taking 14 different AP tests were affected and must retake the exam.
These tests are pretty tough. Students take weeks and in some cases months to prepare for them and now will only have a few days.
The district did not want to comment about how they got it so wrong, but a vice principal said the school thought it was following the correct guidelines.
"It's the schools responsibility. We take ownership for that because we follow the college board guidelines, so the room is in a certain way and obviously there were some seating irregularities that didn't follow those guidelines," Vice Principal Sebastian Bull said.
"Most of us studied really hard and didnt' want to spend any more time thinking about it and now we're asked again and we've lost all those hours of studying and efforts of reviewing and things like that," student Barry Somanathan said.
The school confirmed the news Friday and told parents the tests will be given again beginning on Monday and all through the week.
"These kids studied so hard, put their notes away, had a party and now all of a sudden you have 48 hours," parent Patty Scrivner said.
Some students are pretty stressed out about it. Some juniors are also studying for the SAT which they will take next Saturday
Some teachers and students who took some of these AP courses, but were not affected will be at the school over the weekend to help the others prepare for the tests.
One of the students started a Facebook page Thursday just for them to vent and protest what has happened. So far, they have over 160 followers.
The school will once again meet with parents at 10:30 on Saturday to answer any questions.
