Almost every student feels enormous pressure during their last two years of high school as they prepare for the next chapter in their life after graduation. Between keeping grades up as high as possible and balancing a strong extracurricular schedule, many students struggle to get ready for college as application deadlines creep up on them. One immense pressure students worry about and work towards endlessly is standardized tests, such as the SAT and the ACT.

Every year, nearly two million students across the country sit in a classroom in a classroom at least once in their high school career where 215 multiple-choice questions are put in front of them to answer.

This phenomenon is no other than the ACT, or American College Test, one of a few types of standardized tests used mainly for the college application process.

The exam is also sometimes required for applying to summer programs and scholarships.

While the standard ACT exam is three hours long, or three hours and 40 minutes with writing, many students prepare for months at a time and spend thousands of dollars to get the score their dream school is looking for. They take classes, some offered in their school and some at private businesses, work with tutors, buy books and study sets. For many, it pays off—they get the score they want, their dream school takes, it and they never have to look at the exam again.

For 53 students, they may have to revisit the ACT again soon whether they’d like to or not. 53 answer booklets belonging to students who took the exam at Roslyn High School on October 22 have gone missing sometime between the exam date and late December.

Among the 53 is Jaime Kashani, a Roslyn High School junior who thought she did very well on the exam.

“After the test ended, my mom came to pick me up,” Kashani said. “I told her in the car that I can’t wait for my score and that I am really confident I did well on my test.”

Cami Kozuch, also a Roslyn High School junior, felt similarly.

“There wasn’t really a time during it where I felt completely unsure or pressed for time,” Kozuch said.

The exam is offered six times per school year to high school juniors and seniors. There are four sections, including English, math, reading and science, as well as an optional essay.

Administering the exam is supposedly very precise and secure. Proctors are given prior instructions as well as a manual with very detailed rules to what time, down to the second when to start, what kind of pencils are allowed and room conditions are expected to be like.

Although a spokesperson for the ACT has said every safety protocol had been taken, it wasn’t evidently enough to keep some booklets safe. It is still unclear as to if the booklets were lost in a transit error, at the ACT headquarters or at Roslyn High School, the testing site.

What has left many families appalled the most is the way they found out there was a problem in the first place.

“I wish the people at ACT were more communicative with the students who were affected by this whole situation. The only way my family and I found out was from a Facebook post,” Kozuch said.

A post was made in a Facebook group exclusively for moms of Roslyn students asking for people who have not gotten their scores to come forward. This post was the first many found out something was wrong to begin with.

Many of the students checked their online account and email each day waiting for their scores… only to find out what happened by someone who was not even affiliated with the exam.

Kashani, like Kozuch, thought that the administrators of the exam could have been more professional about addressing the dilemma.

“It’s extremely irresponsible to not tell students who are desperately waiting to hear their scores,” Kashani said. “I believe they should have told us right away.”

Had they informed students immediately after they found out the booklets were missing, students may have been able to take the next available exam, which was proctored in December.

This is worrying not only to high school juniors and their families who worked hard preparing, but even moreso to seniors who need the scores in time to meet their college application deadlines.

The loss of their answer booklets is definitely cutting it close when it comes to meeting such strict deadlines.

“I’m grateful I’m not a senior,” Kozuch said. “I can only imagine how hard that must be. At the end of the day, I will just take another test and hopefully that score will have no issues."

This is not the first time answer booklets of exams taken in Long Island schools have gone missing. Previously, 61 answer booklets went missing after the June 2015 exam was administered in Kings Park.

On December 29, an apology was sent out to the 53 students whose booklets from October were lost by the exam administrators, saying that they are offering a refund for the families for the October test, as well as a make-up at Roslyn High School on January 14 just for the students whose answer booklets are lost. If that date does not work for them, they are welcome to transfer the registration to a different future testing date.

It was not mentioned what will happen for seniors currently applying for college and scholarships.

What they cannot issue a refund for, however, is the students’ hard work and dedication they put into the October test that was lost that has left students distraught. Their countless hours stressing and preparing are thrown away and replaced with a voucher.

“It’s completely unfair and wrong of them," Kashani said. "I thought I did really well. It’s a shame to see so much of my hard work go out the window for someone else’s misplacement of my test.”

Administrators from Roslyn High School and ACT didn't immediately respond to comment.