NEW YORK — The College Board said this week that roughly 45% of the high school students who registered to take the SAT or SAT Subject Tests on August 29 can't. That's because a number of testing centers across the country closed because of the cornoavirus pandemic or decided to reduce their capacities because of COVID-19-related safety measures.
The board, which administers the college admissions test, said as of August 18, the closures and limited capacities meant 178,600 of the 402,000 students who planned to take exams this month won't be able to do it.
“We know this is a challenging time for students who want to take the SAT. We are working with local communities to help ensure as many students who want to test have the opportunity to do so, safely, during next week’s SAT administration and those that follow each month this year,” said Priscilla Rodriguez, the College Board Vice President of College Readiness Assessments. “Our top priorities are the health and safety of students and educators, and we are working with test centers that need to close or need to reduce their available seats because of new safety measures. We are notifying students as quickly as possible about test center closures and capacity reductions to reduce uncertainty before test day.”
The College Board said of the test centers that were supposed to administer tests on August 29, only 54% are open, some at reduced capacity. Some of those that are open are at their full capacity.
Test centers that are open have to follow their local public health guidelines as well as College Board health-related policies.
Students and staff at all weekend test centers have to wear a mask or protective face covering throughout the duration of the SAT administration. Students have to be seated at least six feet apart during testing. They also have to confirm a series of health and safety statements (including that they don’t have symptoms of COVID-19 and that they aren't violating any travel or quarantine requirements) before entering the test center or testing room.
Schools and test centers make their own call about whether to administer the SAT. When test centers let the College Board they have closed or reduced capacity, the board emails students to let them know about the change.
A full list of reported closures is posted on the College Board Test Center Closings page. The board said it encourages students to opt in to receive text message updates.
The College Board asked colleges to extend deadlines for receiving test scores and to give those students who aren't able to take the test due to COVID-19 the same consideration they would give students who are able to take it.
The College Board said colleges understand that testing opportunities are limited and that most of them aren't requiring a test score for the upcoming admissions cycle.
The College Board also added a weekend SAT administration and an SAT School Day administration in September to give students more opportunities.
If a test center closes, students who registered there will receive a refund, and they can register for a future test date.
For more information, you can visit the SAT Coronavirus Updates page.