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Missing ACT college exams found

Affected students can still retake test free of charge

By Keerthi Vedantam, The Seattle Times
Published: August 23, 2019, 9:55pm

Remember those 40 ACT tests that went missing?

The admissions testing company has found them. FedEx delivered the tests — taken by students at Everett’s Mariner High School — to ACT on Wednesday, a spokesman said.

Now, the company is working to score the exams “as fast as possible,” said Ed Colby, the ACT spokesman.

“It’s been so long for the students to get their results,” Colby said. “These students have been through some stress … we’re hoping to get it to them within a few weeks.”

Brian Kirk’s daughter was one of the 40 students whose tests got lost.

“We were happy to be informed [about the found tests], and our daughter is extremely relieved,” Kirk said. “But this entire experience has been needlessly frustrating.”

It was her second time taking the test. Kirk said he has two 15-year-old sons nearing college age, but the experience, “leaves a bad taste in my mouth for the ACT.”

The students whose tests got lost chose to take the ACT’s optional essay portion, which usually takes two weeks to score.

The ACT answer sheets are sent from all over the country to its headquarters in Iowa City, Iowa, where the company scores writing portions and runs the multiple-choice answer sheets through a machine.

But that leaves room for human error — earlier this year, a North Carolina high school lost all 440 ACT answer sheets of its entire rising senior class. More than 120 ACT went missing in transit from Los Angeles in 2017.

“Some packages take longer than others, for whatever reason,” Colby said. “But they usually do turn [up].”

The Mariner High School students whose tests were lost and then found were automatically registered for the September test, free of charge. They will still have the option to take a free test.

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