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Early this week, a class action lawsuit was filed against the companies behind the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) alleging that the companies printed an error in a testing booklet telling students they had an extra five minutes on a portion of the exam.
Lead plaintiff, a New York high school student, alleges in her class action lawsuit that an error in the test booklet told students they had an extra five minutes on a 20-minute portion of the exam administered this June. According to the SAT class action lawsuit, some proctors enforced the correct time, while others did not. As a result, the testing company invalidated that part of the exam. According to the class action lawsuit, this makes the June test “not equivalent to scores of SATs administered before the June 6th Test and cannot be equivalent to SATs administered thereafter.”
The class action alleges that Princeton, N.J.-based Educational Testing Service, which develops and administers tests, and The College Board, a nonprofit in New York City, all had a hand in the error. “Because defendants failed to deliver an SAT score that was uniform and reliable for use to plaintiff and class members in the college selection and admissions process, plaintiff and class members were harmed,” argues the plaintiff in her SAT class action lawsuit.
The plaintiff claims that the error caused her and other test takers anxiety and caused them to waste time on the timed college entrance exam. Although the testing companies offered to re-test the plaintiff in October, according to the SAT class action lawsuit, simply re-taking the test “will not make the class whole and does not reduce or eliminate damages” for those who took the test on June 6.
The plaintiff claims that the testing companies breached their contract with the test takers, and also accuses them of common law negligence, unjust enrichment and negligent misrepresentation. According to the SAT class action lawsuit, the plaintiff seeks “restitution and disgorgement of the revenues wrongfully retained as a result of defendants’ wrongful conduct,” damages and attorneys’ fees.
According to the class action lawsuit, the SAT generates more than $400 million. More than 2 million examinees pay up to $100 each to take the test each year, it continues. “A great deal of pressure is on the examinees to score high. [It is an] entire industry to coach and teach the SATs, with hundreds of millions spent by college-bound students to prepare for the SAT,” points out the plaintiff in her SAT class action lawsuit.
The plaintiff also points out that it is “critically important to applicants that their applications put forward their best possible credentials to a college that will potentially change the entire course of their lives,” in the class action lawsuit. “When they pay defendants for college entrance examination services, plaintiff and the class she seeks to represent pay for a reputation, and a score that will not be questioned as different from their student competitors in the college application and admission process.”
The plaintiff and proposed Class are represented by Bradley King of Ahdoot & Wolfson PC.
The SAT Class Action Lawsuit is Whalen v. Educational Testing Service, et al., Case No. 3:15-cv-04210, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.
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