PROVO — Brigham Young University students who score 91 or better on tests now earn various computerized pats on the back.
A few years ago, the BYU Testing Center switched from printing out each student's test scores to posting the results on a TV screen in the hallway one flight down from what some consider a chamber of horrors — a 649-seat hall where accountability is doled out for hours spent studying.
Or not studying.
For many years, those who scored 90 percent or better found a "Congratulations" next to their score. This semester, BYU programmer Rick Winscot added several new congratulatory adjectives — but raised the threshold for earning praise to 91 percent.
On Tuesday night, a couple of hours before the testing center closed for the Thanksgiving holiday break, student Carl Johnson was grateful for the "Awesome!" next to the 95 he scored on his exercise physiology exam.
"It's nice to come down and see that," said Johnson, who completed a 20-year stint in the Air Force last year and returned to BYU, where his son Shane is a freshman.
"I'm a much better student this time around," Johnson said. "I'm getting all A's."
Those A's now earn on-screen "Excellents" and "Fantastics." Score 100 percent, and the commendation is "Perfect!"
If there is a problem with the test, students see a red, flashing "Error Go Back."
"The go-back message is really nice," said Alison Day, a senior from Dallas. "Once I erased an answer and filled in another and the computer couldn't tell which I wanted, so I got to go back and fix it. I know people who have missed a page and were able to go back and finish instead of missing a quarter of their test."
The screens list 30 scores at all times to provide anonymity.
"If there aren't enough new scores to fill the screen, we randomly generate scores and IDs to hide them," said Bud Wood, director of testing services.
The idea to compliment good scores was born about 20 years ago.
"A student commented to me that students never got any positive feedback from the testing center," Wood said. "In fact, on the paper printouts with the score and the list of items missed, the more items you missed, the more feedback you got, all of it negative."
The positive reinforcement is a boon to some students.
"When I got a 'Perfect!' for my test score, I felt like the screen was reaching out and giving me a high five," Jared Bourgeios, an accounting major, recently told the campus newspaper, the Daily Universe. "But what I think would be really funny is if the screen had messages for when you got bad test scores like, 'Try more studying,' 'Change majors' or my personal favorite, 'Problem, go back — to the library!' "
Others use the adjectives more pragmatically.
"I never notice what word it is, just whether there is one or not," said Jerry Lind, a junior from South Jordan. "Then I know I scored high."
The TV screen and the digital applause are not the only things BYU alumni might find new about the testing center, the largest in the United States.
Students can now check the testing center's Web site, testing.byu.edu, to look at a video feed of the lines to get into the testing hall. The site also lists how many seats are available.
Only 40 to 50 colleges and universities use testing centers, said Wood, past president of the National College Testing Association. The others opt to give tests in class.
Day prefers the testing center.
"I can take my tests whenever I want and I can see my score as soon as I'm done," she said. "It can make or break your day, but then the test is done, and you don't have to worry about how you did. You just walk down the stairs and there it is."
BYU's testing center administers more than three times as many tests as any other school in the country, Wood said.
"Students sometimes have a tough time coming to the testing center, but we administer 800,000 tests a year," he said. "We turn back 1 million hours of instructional time to the classroom. That's why we exist. It does a lot of good."
E-mail: twalch@desnews.com