Testing Students with School-Based Accommodations in a Test Center

If a student cannot be seated in school-based testing, a test center coordinator may agree to administer the test to them at a test center on a Saturday (or Sunday). This involves additional steps to ensure the student is properly identified and assigned the correct test package/paper materials. Note that even though they share the same SAT Weekend test date, center-based testing and school-based testing are separated into two test administrations in Test Day Toolkit; each has its own roster and needs to be set up separately.

Accessing the School-Based Roster

  1. The primary SSD coordinator receives an email with Test Day Toolkit access to the appropriate roster. This happens later than the test coordinator's email—usually about 3 weeks prior to the opening of the testing window. Note that school-based testing takes place any time within a 7-day window beginning with the Saturday test date that students register for.
  2. First-time access requires a one-time onboarding process; otherwise, the coordinator can go directly to testday.collegeboard.org.
  3. They will select their 6-digit Attending Institution code (AI code) from the Test Site dropdown—being careful to not select their test center if they are also associated with one—and they will select the school-based event from the Event dropdown. School-based events always have a label showing "(school-based accommodations)".

Additional notes if you are administering school-based accommodations in a test center:

  • If someone other than the primary SSD coordinator will be acting as the coordinator for the school-based test administration, they will need to contact Customer Service to get added to that test administration in order to access the test administration as well as the AI and test center rosters.
    • The coordinator will need to onboard for this second administration test site following steps 2 and 3 above.
    • Once they've onboarded the second test site, they can begin to add staff to the site for the school-based administration.
  • On test day, if one coordinator is administering both the center-based and the school-based testing at the same time, they may want to use two different devices to access the two different rosters.

School-Based Accommodations

Students registered to take SAT Weekend with any of the following accommodations will usually be tested by the SSD coordinator at a school rather than in a test center:

  • Assistive technology
  • Braille accommodations (use of braille writer, screen reader, refreshable braille, or paper test)
  • Use of any paper supplements (reader's script, raised line drawings)
  • Human reader or scribe for digital tests
  • Paper test for digital assessments
  • Screen reader for digital tests
  • Dictation (speech to text)
  • Limited testing time or more than double time for reading or math (may require multiday testing)
  • School-based testing, one-to-one testing, or home/hospital testing
  • Other (recording responses, modified setting, etc.)

See About Accommodations for more information about the particular school-based accommodations you will be administering.

Important Points About Testing with Accommodations

  • Most school-based students will test in Bluebook™. Bluebook manages all timing, including accommodated breaks.
    • Extra breaks and extended breaks are part of the student's test package. The student will receive notification to take a break and will not see a Pause button.
    • Breaks as needed is the only accommodation that gives the student control over the breaks. In this case, the student must toggle the break on and off by using the Pause button.
  • Work with the technology coordinator or your IT department to ensure that students approved for Assistive Technology (AT) have their AT settings configured before testing begins.
  • Students testing over 2 days will stop Day 1 after the Reading and Writing section. Proctors should prepare to guide students using the instructions under Students Testing Over Multiple Days in the SAT Weekend School-Based Accommodations Guide.

Handling Paper Supplements and Paper Testing

  • See the SAT Weekend Paper Testing Guide for instructions on managing and distributing paper materials as well as using the Testing Room Materials Report form to record materials assigned to a proctor and testing room. Students testing with any type of paper materials (supplements and/or actual paper tests) must receive their assigned materials as noted in the Shipping Notice sent with the materials.
  • Students testing digitally with paper supplements have test packages with slightly longer timing than the adaptive test that most students receive.
  • Paper testers won't have an admission ticket, and proctors should identify them from their photo and physical appearance.
  • Proctors for paper testers must time the test and breaks using the scripts in the SAT Weekend Paper Testing Guide. Follow all instructions in the Paper Testing Guide for handling the test books and returning them for scoring. Proctors should review the information under How to Proctor Paper Tests in the SAT Weekend School-Based Accommodations Guide for how to check students in and when to start following the scripts in the SAT Weekend Paper Testing Guide .

Important: Never try to use Bluebook during paper testing. No one, paper test takers or staff, should use Bluebook at all. Timing must be administered using the appropriate script(s) in the SAT Weekend Paper Testing Guide.

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