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February 22, 2007 | Issue 4-13

MT. PROSPECT, Illinois -- A high school student hoping to elevate his score on the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) opted to use the prohibited High Scorer number seven pencil and scored a whopping 26,000. Unfortunately for the student, the High Scorer number seven performed so well, his gaudy score raised many questions. The test, in which a perfect score is 1600, has allowed only the use of number two pencils since its introduction in 1901. The number seven High Scorer has far better answering capabilities than the traditional number two, and many criticize the College Board, administer of the test, for not keeping pace with new pencil technology in identifying cheaters.

"I never knew the number seven pencil would produce such a high score," admits Princeton Review CEO John Katzman. "As a company that provides study materials to maximize performance on many standardized tests, this is important news. Obviously the number seven pencil was overkill, but we may begin recommending a number three or maybe even four to give students taking our preparation courses an advantage."

For now, the College Board does not have a clear plan of action to ensure students are only using number two pencils. However, the private not-for-profit examination board maintains that anomalies in scoring, such as a score 24,400 over perfect, are clear enough to identify any cheating.

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