The Alternative Press

In an effort to help high school seniors and their parents, Creative Dimensions in Education, a tutoring company in Chatham, NJ, is educating them regarding the new requirements for registering for the SAT test.

Students will be required to upload their photos when registering for the October tests. These photos will appear on the students’ admission tickets and must match their official IDs, such as  driver’s licenses or school IDs.

These new requirements are in response to a highly publicized Long Island cheating scandal last fall involving dozens of high school students. School officials discovered high-scoring students using fake IDs to take SAT tests for dozens of other students. In response to the scandal, SAT officials announced the new guidelines last March.

Under the new guidelines, students’ photos will be attached not only to their admission tickets, but also to their test scores, and those scores will be reported both to the students and their high schools. Even if students circumvent the ID process on the day of the test, their high school counselors will more than likely catch them when photos on the score reports do not match the students they know.

While uploading pictures on the Internet is second nature for most students, it is the parents who typically register their children for the tests.  “Parents are less familiar with how to handle this requirement, yet they are typically the ones who handle the registrations for the SAT,” according to Andrea Blumenthal, president of Creative Dimensions. “Because they have previously registered their children under the old system, parents may assume they understand the process of registering. We are particularly concerned because for many seniors the October test is their final opportunity to improve their scores. Not understanding the process could cause these seniors to miss the deadline.”

Even though the company has emailed parents and placed copies of the new instructions in its waiting room, its tutors are discovering most students are unaware of the new requirements. “The first question I ask my students who are seniors is whether they have registered for the SAT. The most common response is, ‘I don’t know--my mother usually does that.’ I have yet to encounter a rising senior who is aware of the policy change,” says Marcia Stornetta an SAT tutor at Creative Dimensions.

“Because the September 7 registration deadline for the October SAT is only a month away,” adds Linda Lodzinski, Head of Mathemathics. “We are actively trying to make students and parents aware of the policy so they are not caught short.”

To understand the new guidelines before registering, parents and students may go directly to the College Board website, http://sat.collegeboard.org/register/photo-requirements. Or they may pick up printed copies of the new requirements at Creative Dimensions in Education, Inc., 466 Southern Blvd, Chatham, NJ.

Creative Dimensions in Education, Inc. is a private tutoring company located in Chatham, NJ. Founded by Andrea Blumenthal in 1985, the company provides one-on-one tutoring to students of all ages in several subject areas. The company specializes in test preparation, especially college and graduate school entrance exams, such as the PSAT, SAT, ACT, AP Exams, GRE, LSAT, and GMAT.

For further information contact:

Marcia Stornetta, Creative Dimensions in Education, Inc., cd@creative1on1.com. Phone: 973-520-4519