Emergent News

The test results for students in Egypt's American Diploma education system who took an Egyptian exam equivalent to the SATs, an international test used for university admissions, will be released on 7 and 8 October, said Higher Education Minister Tarek Shawki on Monday.

Shawki said the ministry will send emails to inform students who have passed the exam of their scores.

Students should obtain their certificates from the ministry before submitting them to their desired university or to the Tansiq office tasked with assigning students to public university faculties based on their scores and their preferences.

The new Egyptian Scholastic Test (EST) was designed after the Manhattan-based College Board, the owner of the SATs, announced the suspension of the SAT examinations in Egypt until next June due to “test security issues”. The cancellation announcement was made a few hours before the final exams in August. This means that students who wanted to enroll into university this year would have to wait.

“Persistent [test leaks] have led to repeated test and score cancellations, despite the implementation of numerous additional security procedures. Due to these security issues, we cannot continue administering the SAT in Egypt at this time,” a statement by the College Board read.

Two weeks later, the ministry announced launching the first cycle of the computer-based EST, which according to the ministry, is designed to assess the knowledge and skills of Egyptian students in the American Diploma system in Egypt, before they can join Egyptian universities.

The new exam serves as an alternative to the SAT or ACT international exams. It includes EST I and EST II, which resembles the SAT in structure.

Since 2019, the College Board has repeatedly cancelled the SAT exams or canceled the announcement of test for Egyptian students over the leakage of exam questions. Recently, the board cancelled its exams due to the pandemic, without offering an online alternative.