Discussions

There were widespread reports of issues with the PSAT test this morning. Some schools have postponed testing due to technical difficulties today. Below are a few ideas shared on various listservs, gathered in one spot for your convenience. Others report that with consistent refreshing, students are able to get through the exam. 

Try restarting and reloading, but do use caution if they are logged in on a loaner machine: Have proctors inform students to close all other apps before beginning. Also, imperative that any mac OS loaner machines set up are not using guest accounts. They will erase the exam if not submitted.

Sometimes the students will be able to log in just fine, but the testing admins can't reliably access the TestDay Toolkit. 

Support hold times for the phone are reported at 45 minutes to over an hour.

Something to watch out for: There was a problem (which may have been an operator error) in which checked in students from before the test needed to be checked in again to start the test, which slowed things down.

Here's a summary a few common problems and some possible solutions:

1. Bluebook taking forever to load:

   • Solution: We resolved this issue by closing out of the application entirely and reopening it. It seemed to refresh and load properly after that.

2. Error message regarding "enter assessment mode" when hitting next:

   • Solution: A simple restart of the computer entirely and logging back into Bluebook seemed to fix this issue. Students could proceed after this.

3. Computers suddenly going all grey and locking down:

   • Solution: Restarting the computer entirely and logging back into Bluebook resolved this issue. It appeared to be a temporary glitch.

4. Bluebook "experiencing a problem" after every question:

   • Solution: Students were instructed to log completely out of Bluebook and then log back in, which seemed to mitigate this recurring problem.

5. Students finishing sections with a lot of time left:

   • Possible Solution: This was an observation we made. To address this, we suggested ensuring that students carefully read everything to avoid rushing through the questions.

6. Computers not holding a charge as expected:

   • Solution: Encouraging students to bring chargers helped alleviate this issue, ensuring they could charge their devices during breaks.

A few other notes:

In our particular testing environment, we had all the students in a gymnasium, which was expected to have sufficient access point coverage. However, we were advised not to split the students to avoid oversaturating the access points, as it could affect the help room's ability. It's worth noting that our school is a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) environment.

Our College Counseling office, in partnership with IT, handled the planning, and we invested in a range of charging cords to ensure students could charge their devices in various locations. Additionally, our Upper School mentors had a checklist to confirm that each student had installed the necessary software, although some had issues due to outdated operating systems. Updating the OS resolved these problems, although it's worth noting that some students were reluctant to restart their laptops or perform updates.

-----------

I hope this information can help other schools and educators prepare for PSAT testing. If you have any additional insights, solutions, or questions, please share them in this discussion.

We just tested yesterday, and I have a few additional observations. We are a BYOD environment with 95% of the students using Macs.

1) Students don't like to restart their devices. Closing the lid and opening it back up is not a restart!

2) When restarting a Mac, most of the apps previously open just open back up again. Students need to actually close all open apps and not just minimize them. For many students we worked with, they did not know how to do that.

3) A few students had parents who have ScreenTime installed and turned on a setting that limited their time in any individual program. This caused an issue as when they were in the BlueBook app for too long. For next time, we need to remind parents to turn off this feature!

4) We had one students with a VPN installed and running. She did not know the password to uninstall it as her sister had previously installed it. We have not replicated this but are guessing that a VPN can not be active while using the BlueBook app.

Good luck to everyone taking the test in the upcoming days!

------------------------------
Barry Kallmeyer
Hathaway Brown School
Shaker Heights OH

Original Message:
Sent: 10-11-2023 10:29 AM
From: Ashley Cross
Subject: PSAT issues

There were widespread reports of issues with the PSAT test this morning. Some schools have postponed testing due to technical difficulties today. Below are a few ideas shared on various listservs, gathered in one spot for your convenience. Others report that with consistent refreshing, students are able to get through the exam. 

Try restarting and reloading, but do use caution if they are logged in on a loaner machine: Have proctors inform students to close all other apps before beginning. Also, imperative that any mac OS loaner machines set up are not using guest accounts. They will erase the exam if not submitted.

Sometimes the students will be able to log in just fine, but the testing admins can't reliably access the TestDay Toolkit. 

Support hold times for the phone are reported at 45 minutes to over an hour.

Something to watch out for: There was a problem (which may have been an operator error) in which checked in students from before the test needed to be checked in again to start the test, which slowed things down.

Here's a summary a few common problems and some possible solutions:

1. Bluebook taking forever to load:

   • Solution: We resolved this issue by closing out of the application entirely and reopening it. It seemed to refresh and load properly after that.

2. Error message regarding "enter assessment mode" when hitting next:

   • Solution: A simple restart of the computer entirely and logging back into Bluebook seemed to fix this issue. Students could proceed after this.

3. Computers suddenly going all grey and locking down:

   • Solution: Restarting the computer entirely and logging back into Bluebook resolved this issue. It appeared to be a temporary glitch.

4. Bluebook "experiencing a problem" after every question:

   • Solution: Students were instructed to log completely out of Bluebook and then log back in, which seemed to mitigate this recurring problem.

5. Students finishing sections with a lot of time left:

   • Possible Solution: This was an observation we made. To address this, we suggested ensuring that students carefully read everything to avoid rushing through the questions.

6. Computers not holding a charge as expected:

   • Solution: Encouraging students to bring chargers helped alleviate this issue, ensuring they could charge their devices during breaks.

A few other notes:

In our particular testing environment, we had all the students in a gymnasium, which was expected to have sufficient access point coverage. However, we were advised not to split the students to avoid oversaturating the access points, as it could affect the help room's ability. It's worth noting that our school is a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) environment.

Our College Counseling office, in partnership with IT, handled the planning, and we invested in a range of charging cords to ensure students could charge their devices in various locations. Additionally, our Upper School mentors had a checklist to confirm that each student had installed the necessary software, although some had issues due to outdated operating systems. Updating the OS resolved these problems, although it's worth noting that some students were reluctant to restart their laptops or perform updates.

-----------

I hope this information can help other schools and educators prepare for PSAT testing. If you have any additional insights, solutions, or questions, please share them in this discussion.

#ITSystemsandSupport

------------------------------
Dr. Ashley Cross
Senior Director of Education and Content
www.theatlis.org
888-502-8547
------------------------------

Good morning,

Most of our issues yesterday were on College Board's end. We had to keep refreshing to access Bluebook so start times varied wildly.

In addition, a couple of students with accommodations using Macs were unable to get the text-to-speech to work. They said they had done the set-up to use text-to-speech prior but we couldn't get it to read. In the interest of time, we switched them to loaners but I am curious if anyone saw this and has a fix.

------------------------------
Colleen Shine Rives
Maryvale Preparatory School
Lutherville MD

Original Message:
Sent: 10-12-2023 07:55 AM
From: Barry Kallmeyer
Subject: PSAT issues

We just tested yesterday, and I have a few additional observations. We are a BYOD environment with 95% of the students using Macs.

1) Students don't like to restart their devices. Closing the lid and opening it back up is not a restart!

2) When restarting a Mac, most of the apps previously open just open back up again. Students need to actually close all open apps and not just minimize them. For many students we worked with, they did not know how to do that.

3) A few students had parents who have ScreenTime installed and turned on a setting that limited their time in any individual program. This caused an issue as when they were in the BlueBook app for too long. For next time, we need to remind parents to turn off this feature!

4) We had one students with a VPN installed and running. She did not know the password to uninstall it as her sister had previously installed it. We have not replicated this but are guessing that a VPN can not be active while using the BlueBook app.

Good luck to everyone taking the test in the upcoming days!

------------------------------
Barry Kallmeyer
Hathaway Brown School
Shaker Heights OH

Original Message:
Sent: 10-11-2023 10:29 AM
From: Ashley Cross
Subject: PSAT issues

There were widespread reports of issues with the PSAT test this morning. Some schools have postponed testing due to technical difficulties today. Below are a few ideas shared on various listservs, gathered in one spot for your convenience. Others report that with consistent refreshing, students are able to get through the exam. 

Try restarting and reloading, but do use caution if they are logged in on a loaner machine: Have proctors inform students to close all other apps before beginning. Also, imperative that any mac OS loaner machines set up are not using guest accounts. They will erase the exam if not submitted.

Sometimes the students will be able to log in just fine, but the testing admins can't reliably access the TestDay Toolkit. 

Support hold times for the phone are reported at 45 minutes to over an hour.

Something to watch out for: There was a problem (which may have been an operator error) in which checked in students from before the test needed to be checked in again to start the test, which slowed things down.

Here's a summary a few common problems and some possible solutions:

1. Bluebook taking forever to load:

   • Solution: We resolved this issue by closing out of the application entirely and reopening it. It seemed to refresh and load properly after that.

2. Error message regarding "enter assessment mode" when hitting next:

   • Solution: A simple restart of the computer entirely and logging back into Bluebook seemed to fix this issue. Students could proceed after this.

3. Computers suddenly going all grey and locking down:

   • Solution: Restarting the computer entirely and logging back into Bluebook resolved this issue. It appeared to be a temporary glitch.

4. Bluebook "experiencing a problem" after every question:

   • Solution: Students were instructed to log completely out of Bluebook and then log back in, which seemed to mitigate this recurring problem.

5. Students finishing sections with a lot of time left:

   • Possible Solution: This was an observation we made. To address this, we suggested ensuring that students carefully read everything to avoid rushing through the questions.

6. Computers not holding a charge as expected:

   • Solution: Encouraging students to bring chargers helped alleviate this issue, ensuring they could charge their devices during breaks.

A few other notes:

In our particular testing environment, we had all the students in a gymnasium, which was expected to have sufficient access point coverage. However, we were advised not to split the students to avoid oversaturating the access points, as it could affect the help room's ability. It's worth noting that our school is a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) environment.

Our College Counseling office, in partnership with IT, handled the planning, and we invested in a range of charging cords to ensure students could charge their devices in various locations. Additionally, our Upper School mentors had a checklist to confirm that each student had installed the necessary software, although some had issues due to outdated operating systems. Updating the OS resolved these problems, although it's worth noting that some students were reluctant to restart their laptops or perform updates.

-----------

I hope this information can help other schools and educators prepare for PSAT testing. If you have any additional insights, solutions, or questions, please share them in this discussion.

#ITSystemsandSupport

------------------------------
Dr. Ashley Cross
Senior Director of Education and Content
www.theatlis.org
888-502-8547
------------------------------

There were widespread reports of issues with the PSAT test this morning. Some schools have postponed testing due to technical difficulties today. Below are a few ideas shared on various listservs, gathered in one spot for your convenience. Others report that with consistent refreshing, students are able to get through the exam. 

Try restarting and reloading, but do use caution if they are logged in on a loaner machine: Have proctors inform students to close all other apps before beginning. Also, imperative that any mac OS loaner machines set up are not using guest accounts. They will erase the exam if not submitted.

Sometimes the students will be able to log in just fine, but the testing admins can't reliably access the TestDay Toolkit. 

Support hold times for the phone are reported at 45 minutes to over an hour.

Something to watch out for: There was a problem (which may have been an operator error) in which checked in students from before the test needed to be checked in again to start the test, which slowed things down.

Here's a summary a few common problems and some possible solutions:

1. Bluebook taking forever to load:

   • Solution: We resolved this issue by closing out of the application entirely and reopening it. It seemed to refresh and load properly after that.

2. Error message regarding "enter assessment mode" when hitting next:

   • Solution: A simple restart of the computer entirely and logging back into Bluebook seemed to fix this issue. Students could proceed after this.

3. Computers suddenly going all grey and locking down:

   • Solution: Restarting the computer entirely and logging back into Bluebook resolved this issue. It appeared to be a temporary glitch.

4. Bluebook "experiencing a problem" after every question:

   • Solution: Students were instructed to log completely out of Bluebook and then log back in, which seemed to mitigate this recurring problem.

5. Students finishing sections with a lot of time left:

   • Possible Solution: This was an observation we made. To address this, we suggested ensuring that students carefully read everything to avoid rushing through the questions.

6. Computers not holding a charge as expected:

   • Solution: Encouraging students to bring chargers helped alleviate this issue, ensuring they could charge their devices during breaks.

A few other notes:

In our particular testing environment, we had all the students in a gymnasium, which was expected to have sufficient access point coverage. However, we were advised not to split the students to avoid oversaturating the access points, as it could affect the help room's ability. It's worth noting that our school is a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) environment.

Our College Counseling office, in partnership with IT, handled the planning, and we invested in a range of charging cords to ensure students could charge their devices in various locations. Additionally, our Upper School mentors had a checklist to confirm that each student had installed the necessary software, although some had issues due to outdated operating systems. Updating the OS resolved these problems, although it's worth noting that some students were reluctant to restart their laptops or perform updates.

-----------

I hope this information can help other schools and educators prepare for PSAT testing. If you have any additional insights, solutions, or questions, please share them in this discussion.

There were widespread reports of issues with the PSAT test this morning. Some schools have postponed testing due to technical difficulties today. Below are a few ideas shared on various listservs, gathered in one spot for your convenience. Others report that with consistent refreshing, students are able to get through the exam. 

Try restarting and reloading, but do use caution if they are logged in on a loaner machine: Have proctors inform students to close all other apps before beginning. Also, imperative that any mac OS loaner machines set up are not using guest accounts. They will erase the exam if not submitted.

Sometimes the students will be able to log in just fine, but the testing admins can't reliably access the TestDay Toolkit. 

Support hold times for the phone are reported at 45 minutes to over an hour.

Something to watch out for: There was a problem (which may have been an operator error) in which checked in students from before the test needed to be checked in again to start the test, which slowed things down.

Here's a summary a few common problems and some possible solutions:

1. Bluebook taking forever to load:

   • Solution: We resolved this issue by closing out of the application entirely and reopening it. It seemed to refresh and load properly after that.

2. Error message regarding "enter assessment mode" when hitting next:

   • Solution: A simple restart of the computer entirely and logging back into Bluebook seemed to fix this issue. Students could proceed after this.

3. Computers suddenly going all grey and locking down:

   • Solution: Restarting the computer entirely and logging back into Bluebook resolved this issue. It appeared to be a temporary glitch.

4. Bluebook "experiencing a problem" after every question:

   • Solution: Students were instructed to log completely out of Bluebook and then log back in, which seemed to mitigate this recurring problem.

5. Students finishing sections with a lot of time left:

   • Possible Solution: This was an observation we made. To address this, we suggested ensuring that students carefully read everything to avoid rushing through the questions.

6. Computers not holding a charge as expected:

   • Solution: Encouraging students to bring chargers helped alleviate this issue, ensuring they could charge their devices during breaks.

A few other notes:

In our particular testing environment, we had all the students in a gymnasium, which was expected to have sufficient access point coverage. However, we were advised not to split the students to avoid oversaturating the access points, as it could affect the help room's ability. It's worth noting that our school is a BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) environment.

Our College Counseling office, in partnership with IT, handled the planning, and we invested in a range of charging cords to ensure students could charge their devices in various locations. Additionally, our Upper School mentors had a checklist to confirm that each student had installed the necessary software, although some had issues due to outdated operating systems. Updating the OS resolved these problems, although it's worth noting that some students were reluctant to restart their laptops or perform updates.

-----------

I hope this information can help other schools and educators prepare for PSAT testing. If you have any additional insights, solutions, or questions, please share them in this discussion.