UT: BYU Re-Invites 7 Students Hurt by Testing Service's Errors

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BY KIRSTEN STEWART
THE SALT LAKE TRIBUNE


   After learning about scoring errors on its business school entrance exam, Brigham Young University has invited seven students, who applied last year and were rejected, to re-submit applications.
    In December, BYU and schools across the nation were notified by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) that a computer error caused about 1,000 of those taking the Graduate Management Admission Test to get lower scores than they deserved.
    The testing service sent BYU scores for about 20 students who had been affected, said Carole Thornton, graduate admissions secretary for BYU's Marriott School of Management. The new scores for the majority of these students were only about 10 to 20 points higher, Thornton said. "But for about six or seven, the new scores improved by 40 to 60 points and knocked them into a more competitive category."
    Because the admissions deadline was past, BYU was left with no option but to invite these students to apply again next year, she said. Thornton did not know how many, if any, of these individuals took advantage of the offer, nor could she say whether they would be given special consideration.
    Neither the testing service nor the Graduate Management Admission Council in McLean, Va., which owns the GMAT, publicly announced the scoring problem when it was discovered last November. Rumors of the mistake were confirmed and reported in the New York Times on Friday.
    Only about 3 percent of the roughly 32,000 people who took the GMAT between February and March 2000, were affected, said Tom Ewing, spokesman for the testing service.
    A team of testing service researchers discovered the computer bug that caused about 970 people not to get credit for answers to nine questions.
    The Educational Testing Service administers a host of graduate school admission exams and placement tests, such as the SAT and Advanced Placement Tests -- which are being increasingly scrutinized for fairness and quality control.
    "As pressure grows on the use of tests for greater high-stakes decisions, incidents of mistakes or inaccuracies take on greater importance," Ewing said. "ETS still urges everyone to use scores as one part of the criteria that schools use in making admission or placement decisions."
    The five universities in Utah with graduate programs in business -- BYU, University of Utah, Utah State University, Weber State University and Westminster College -- all require applicants to take the GMAT.
    BYU was the only Utah school to receive notice its applicants were affected by scoring problems.

Salt Lake Tribune

-- Anonymous, May 26, 2001


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