On March 8, 2025, thousands of students from across the nation took part in the first SAT administration of the year. The SAT, an international test aimed to measure students’ readiness and aptitude for college, has recently transitioned into a fully digital testing, being facilitated by College Board’s BlueBook app. However, what was supposed to be a routine exam turned into a source of frustration for students across the country.

During the exam, a technical glitch occurred, causing the exam to automatically submit even if the exam was not complete. Due to the nature of the exam’s timing system, the test was submitted at around 11 a.m. local time. While a majority of students would be finished by then, students who started later or tested with accommodations lost valuable time on their test, potentially devastating their score due to a glitch for which they could not possibly account. 

“I think that the glitch in the March SAT was definitely unfair. To be fair, the digital SAT is still a very new concept, but I think that these issues should have already been addressed before the change was put into place,” junior Janice Park said. “Especially considering how important these scores are, students should be able to take them with confidence that it’s their own knowledge that will make up their score rather than a simple issue with the system used. So this issue should absolutely be resolved or at least addressed before any other students are negatively and unfairly punished for an issue with the system, not themselves.”

After the test was over, students from across the globe expressed their frustration through various social media sites, including platforms such as Reddit. The College Board would then promptly send emails to affected students, offering them a full refund for the registration fees and a free voucher for a later administration. Along with this, a makeup date was offered for these students, being conducted in participating testing centers on March 22. However, to take a part of these makeup tests, students would have to void their March 8 scores, essentially forcing students to cancel their scores blind to have a chance for the makeup tests, causing further outrage from students. 

“The College Board should have a system in place for any and all issues that could occur during the exam,” business teacher Mr. Spano said. “For this to happen is simply not fair for students who put time and money into the exam only for them to lose time and possibly ruin their score.”

On March 14, the College Board released a statement expanding on the controversy surrounding the test. They retracted their previous emails and promised students that they could choose to take the March 22 makeup examination regardless if they wanted to keep or cancel their scores. Along with this, students would be able to preview their scores, helping students to make a more knowledgeable decision. This update received far more positive feedback, allowing students more clarity on the situation at hand. 

“While I didn’t encounter the glitch myself, the College Board still sent me an email to allow me to take a makeup exam,” junior Matt Batting said. “It was an unexpected but very welcomed extra opportunity for me to retake the SAT, so I am overall very pleased with the outcome.”