Oxford’s first day of admission testing has led to distress amongst applicants. The paper for the English Literature Assessment Test (ELAT) was reportedly from the previous year and technical errors led to delays, provoking outrage on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Last year, Oxford announced that they would no longer use Cambridge Admissions Assessment Testing for their testing, which is set to be discontinued in 2024. While the TSA and BMAT will still be administered by CAAT for this year, the majority of admissions tests are now being conducted by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) in an online format.
HSFC Reach & Early Apps, a sixth-form affiliated X account, called for a formal apology, writing: “We look forward to a written apology and statement about the progress of these tests today. Not only with technical errors, but also the error on the ELAT. Students have prepared for these for months, so rapid response is necessary to assure them they will not be disadvantaged.”
A picture of a broadcast message that appeared on the screen was also posted on X, which read: “We would like to inform you that we are experiencing slowness in accessing the tests. We request you to wait for a few mins and we will let you know when things are back to normal. We assure you that students will not loose [sic] any test time.”
One person said that they had “over 90 minutes [delay] plus ongoing glitches followed by issuance of a paper version of the MAT after two hours.”
Further criticisms were made over the lack of communication channels, with one X user writing: “It was a total shambles this morning. Students stressed out due to the Oxford server crashing out. No phone number to call. No updates on the website. This should not have happened!”
The University has been approached for comment.
