Hang onto your No. 2 pencils — the MSU Testing Office has passed a test of its own by becoming the first four-year institution to receive full certification from the National College Testing Association.
The National College Testing Association, or NCTA, a nonprofit organization comprised of testing professionals, works to provide testing services to campuses and corporations throughout the country.
Other universities sharing the honor include Florida Atlantic University. MSU’s Testing Office worked to comply with more than 150 NCTA standards, said David Espinoza, president of the NCTA governing board.
MSU officials applied for certification and agreed to submit themselves to NCTA reviewers, committing to a set of ethical, safe and comfortable testing procedures, he said.
“It has to do with the integrity and the security of the examination process and materials,” Espinoza said. “We’ve been working on a certification process for quite a few years, and MSU was a part of the pilot group. What it means is that the staff at MSU have decided that it was important for them to work with the NCTA on this process.”
And with about 14,000 tests administered annually by the office, procedure is important, said Linda Trevarthen, MSU’s manager of testing services.
Most of the tests given by the office are high risk, Trevarthen said. From the ACT and the SAT before a student’s college career to the LSAT and the GRE at the close of a student’s years on campus, the office works to ensure safety of information, comfort of test takers and fair and consistent procedures, she said. The office gives more than 500 different kinds of exams, more than two-thirds of them to MSU students. Trevarthen said the MSU Testing Office is busy from the second the office opens until the doors close at 5 p.m.
“A lot rests on (these tests) for the students’ next career or their education,” Trevarthen said. “Most tests are two to four hours long. We just want them to be comfortable.”
Criminal justice senior Alyssa Dickey never has taken a test on campus but said she had a rough experience taking the SAT in high school. Dickey said she’s glad to hear MSU’s Testing Office is fully certified.
“My SAT proctors were loud and distracting,” she said. “Even though I did well on the test, quiet is preferable. What really bothers me are the other people in the room coughing, tapping their pencil or tapping their feet.”
Small groups for testing also help make the experience easier to bear, Dickey said.
To make students comfortable, most tests are proctored in Bessey Hall or Wells Hall, Trevarthen said. This way, students have a full desk to work on and not just tablets. Providing quiet atmospheres with lots of personal space is important, she said.
“Students can know that we will always act in the most professional way possible,” she said. “We will always be following all the rules of the test and make sure that the test is given in an atmosphere that’s completely fair and open to everybody.”
The office prides itself on having a friendly, professional staff and standard, fair procedures, she said.
“(The certification) is national recognition for the fact that we strive for excellence in everything we do,” she said.
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