(December 14, 2006) — I stood dumbfounded in front of Hoover High School as my friend once again reaccounted the story of how her SAT proctor had allowed students to go back and forth between sections of the Reasoning test. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard from friends while coming out of my testing room at Hoover of the unbelievable errors made by proctors. This includes everything from a gullible young teacher, tricked by cunning students into believing they had started up to 10 minutes after they actually did with every new section, to the above mentioned self-proclaimed “free spirit” who didn’t like to “stick to the restrictions of time and rules.” I don’t think I’m taking it too far when I say I feel almost outraged at these outlandish violations. This article isn’t about how important standardized tests are to any college bound high school student. We already know that, so I won’t waste your time. I won’t waste your time talking about how inaccurate and incompetent they are at measuring knowledge and skill, because we already know that too. They’re a fact of life and we need to deal with them. What I will talk about is the fact that way too often, despite the fact that even tiny inconsistencies can make a significant difference in a test taker’s scores (which in turn will make a significant difference in the colleges said test takers is admitted into), errors on the part of ignorant or lazy proctors are giving test takers unfair advantages over others. Instead of questioning the integrity of students by making them copy and sign strict waivers that swear they will not discuss or disclose any information about the test, SAT officials and the schools administrating the test should spend more time making sure that testing proctors know and plan on following rules.