Students entering Himes Hall on Thursday afternoon expecting to walk immediately into the Computer-Based Testing Center were surprised and confused to instead meet a line of more than 60 disgruntled students having to wait up to 45 minutes past their scheduled test time.
“This the longest I’ve ever had to wait,” said Bridgette Barr, biological sciences sophomore. “I showed up early to take my exam, but I am taking it later than I was supposed to.”
As students entered through the doors with their notebooks in hand for last-minute studying, their expressions seemed to drop as they turned the corner and saw the line of students stretch down the hall, ending at the vending machines.
“Why don’t they open the Pentagon [testing center]?” wondered Crispin Reily, pre-veterinary medicine sophomore. “The computer testing is a crappy process. You don’t receive partial credit for anything. If you mistype something, then you automatically get it wrong and you get lower grades.”
Although a handful of students were advised to make the trip to the new Pentagon Testing Center, the line continued to multiply at a steady pace.
One of the Himes Hall testing center’s proctors, who wished to remain anonymous, said the backup was most likely because Thursday was one of the last days to take a test and many students wait until the last minute to schedule an exam. The proctor also said the high number of people waiting in the line was a rarity.
Aggravated students threw around obscenities as they grew more impatient, complaining about how the delay messed up their schedules for the day. Some students even complained about how the lines are a clear indication that the Flagship Agenda may not be working.
“The Flagship is crap,” said Laura Queen, biological engineering freshman. “They don’t know what they are doing, and it is hurting us.”
Some students offered explanations for the extended wait, saying it was due to a power outage last week that caused the computers to work incorrectly, but others suspected different reasons.
“They give you 90 minutes to take a test now,” said Lee Bundrick, biological engineering sophomore. “But they schedule the exams in 30-minute brackets. I think people are taking longer to take their tests.”
In the Pentagon Testing Center, students immediately were seated at a computer desk and were surrounded by many unused computers. Borron Owen, a proctor for the Pentagon Testing Center, said the power outage caused a backup in their available computers.
“We use two types of software, Prescription and Maple, which all the math exams are given on,” Owen said. “Our Prescription software got all messed up in the outage, and it is taking us time to get things back in order.”
Owen also said that the longer allotted time for test-taking has caused a delay in the number of computers available.
“Biology exams used to take students about an hour to take,” Owen said. “The students are concentrating more and taking up to an hour and a half to take their exams. The exams are getting harder, so students are taking longer.”