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ETS Will No Longer Note Special Test Conditions

College Board will consider similar changes to SAT

The Educational Testing Service (ETS) announced yesterday that it will no longer flag the test scores of students who take standardized tests with special accommodations for their disabilities.

For now, the announcement only applies to the GMAT, GRE, TOFEL and Praxis exams. The College Board, an independent agency affiliated with the ETS, will decide by March 31 if the same policy will apply to SAT scores.

Flagged scores are currently distinguished by the notation, "Scores Obtained Under Special Conditions," in score reports sent to college admissions offices and students.

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Director of Harvard Admissions Marlyn McGrath Lewis '73 said she is not concerned about receiving scores that have been taken under special conditions but are not denoted as such.

She said that the potential change in score-reporting would not affect the College's admission process.

"This is actually not a big deal," McGrath Lewis wrote in an e-mail. "Tests play a useful, but limited, role in our selection."

She estimated that Harvard currently only receives "perhaps a hundred or so" applications with flagged scores.

The College Board only requires that there be "appropriate documentation on file in school," in order for students to be considered eligible for special testing accommodations, according to material on its website.

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