By KATIE CHRISTENSEN
christensen@newsroom.byu.edu
The BYU Testing Center in the Heber J. Grant building is the largest college testing center in the United States, but students still complain that it is not big enough to suit their needs.
Despite the center's seating capacity of 744, students still have a problem finding a seat, said Kira Slovacek, 20, a junior from Tampa, Fla., majoring in secondary education.
'It makes me aggravated and uncomfortable when I walk in the testing center and I'm just standing there trying to find a vacant seat and everybody is just staring at me with strange looks,' she said.
Slovacek said once she does find a seat it is usually at the very back. She said she has to walk down the long narrow aisles to get a seat.
'No matter what, I am always hitting papers off the students' desks, because the aisles are so narrow,' Slovacek said.
Slovacek said something needs to be done about the narrow aisles, because she is not the only student that has problems while obtaining a seat.
'Inevitably, I always take out a couple students with my backpack as I walk down the narrow aisles,' said Jenny Youngquist, 19, a sophomore from St. Paul, Minn., with an undeclared major.
'To top it off, people leave their bags in the narrow aisles and I always trip,' Youngquist said. 'The testing center just needs to widen their aisles to solve the problems.'
However, Jana Parker, 21, a senior from Fresno, Calif., majoring in health, said she fears if the testing center widens its aisles then it will have to decrease the number of seats.
'There are never enough seats as it is,' she said.
Slovacek said she knows the testing center does have overflow rooms with more seats, but she doesn't know how to use them. Additionally, she said many students are not even aware of these rooms.
'I've always wanted to try taking a test in the music relaxation room but I've never known how,' she said.
Lewis J. 'Bud' Wood, manager of testing services, said the testing center staff does what it can to meet people's needs.
'We try to accommodate students' concerns where reasonable,' Wood said.
Wood said the testing center is working on solutions to the narrow aisle problem.
'Someday, I would like to see lines that would define the aisles in the testing center similar to the lines that are on the carpet where students stand in line awaiting their tests,' Wood said.
According to the testing center Web site, the testing center distributes more than 800,000 tests per year and with this number it is important to accomodate all of the students.