Regular readers know from an earlier blog that there was a beta test administration of the new Vector A.R.C. college entrance test during the recent home school conference in Cincinnati.

Now, Julie West at Vector A.R.C. shares reactions of some of the students who took the test. To put it mildly, there is a lot of insight present in these students’ responses. Keep in mind, all of these students have taken either the SAT or ACT as well as the Vector A.R.C. test.

Here are those stories.

“One 17 year old said - For the first time, I felt like I was taking a test that actually cared about what I know instead of playing some bizarre game cleverly disguised as a test, where I know (they are) after something but it has nothing to do with the questions they're asking.”

“Another student smiled when he got to the ELA portion. He took the test off the table, leaned back in his chair and smiled as if reading for pleasure. Later, he commented on how much he appreciated having the time to really read and appreciate the passages, rather than simply rushing to get answers.”

“One of the last students in the room commented how much he appreciated the other students being permitted to leave when finished. He described how much he hates sitting there knowing everyone else is waiting on him to finish. It's interesting to note the students finishing last are almost always high achieving, meticulous students.”

This last one is especially interesting. It refers to students taking another assessment rather than Vector A.R.C. because the new assessment is multiple-choice only.

“After testing, two sisters recounted how hard one sister who was apparently jaded by the extended response portion of another assessment literally wrote "Blah, blah blah blah blah blah..." and not another word. She did punctuate and capitalize her passage. That sister received a higher score than her sibling who actually tried and by all accounts is actually a very good student and writer.”

This comment doesn’t say anything very nice about the scoring accuracy of the open response part of this other test (sorry, I was not told which assessment was involved).In any event, I am told that students like the untimed, multiple-choice Vector A.R.C. Once the beta testing is done and the test goes operational, we’ll see how well colleges agree.

Vector A.R.C. continues beta testing at other sites around the country such as homeschool conventions. West informs me that even a single school can set up a beta testing opportunity if enough students will participate, and she will be happy to talk to any schools or similar organizations that are interested.