As the ACT just basically walked away from the international table, College Board (CB) continues to muddle through by woefully mismanaging the SAT both internationally and at "home" in the US. This Forbes article is the best we've seen in a while in detailing the problems in the domestic market that are only worse abroad. CB has grown fat and bloated operating as an oligopoly and as an organization could just about walk and chew gum in normal times. Now, it is being asked to walk, chew gum, juggle chainsaws, and balance a bowling ball on its head. Unsurprisingly, the net result is testing chaos.
About half of the kids scheduled to test in September and October globally were cancelled, many last minute. This is often completely out of the control of CB as the decisions are regularly made at the local level by the actual school or local authorities. What is very problematic is that often test centers are shutting but that information takes weeks to percolate through the College Board system to get back to students. This is doubly so in Singapore. Students have even been getting assigned test centers that are actually closed and not findings out the actual situation until a few days before test day - spending time and money on prep for a test that they can't take. A terrible state of affairs that is repeating around the world.
There is an online resource that CB claims will update students on the situation but in practice it is slow to reflect the latest information and the focus is, as ever, on the domestic market with international testing an afterthought. Only several test centers in Singapore are open to outside students and several that students are assigned to for December aren't actually presently planning to be open. Singapore regulations could change tomorrow that would allow for testing at MOE schools and that would help things greatly, but we just can't predict that. The large MOE schools have traditionally accommodated the bulk of the testers in Singapore and with them shut there is a massive supply/demand imbalance. If you are attending a school that is a "closed" test center then you should be just fine, but register early (and often!).
If CB told you that you have a place at a given test center in Singapore to test on December 5th, check with the test center directly to verify that it is still happening. Hopefully the schools will put this information on their websites. If that test center isn't happening then the chances you getting a place at another center that actually has seats is scant, and you'd probably better off not worrying about the test for now. If you are applying to start university in 2021 then the test is optional at just about every American school. If you are applying for 2022 then you should have a clearer run next year to test and even then, it will probably still be optional for you as well. The key thing: don't worry too much as universities need students, and if you can't test, then you can't be asked for a test result. Universities need students, especially full-fee paying students from abroad. Hence, all universities will be more flexible in terms of test and other requirements for the foreseeable future. Check the individual university websites for specific requirements and updates; Twitter feeds in particular often have the most recent information. Note that asking what the exact requirements will be beyond the present 2020-2021 admissions cycle will not get you far as schools really just don't know.
Kids in the class of 2023 should not even be thinking about testing for another 12 months or so and should work on regular school work and whatever other worthy activities they have access to.
Pretty much every school is now formally "test optional" for 2021 and maybe also 2022. That said, if you are able to sit these tests and get a good result then that will help your chances as there are fewer things for universities to consider now as most sports and other CCAs have been shelved. There is much speculation on how everything will pan out and if 2022 kids will have a harder time getting into the most competitive schools due to the many students deferring or not. Anyone who claims to know the answers now should not be trusted, or even listened to.
Needless to say, we are watching this situation very closely. If you want an update just send us an email and we can arrange a time to talk.
