Sophomores and juniors took the PSAT exams at the high school on Wednesday, October 15 in preparation for the SAT test in the future. The students’ reviews were mostly mixed, with some stating that the test went well while others said they struggled a bit.
“Honestly, it went better than I thought, because I was stressing about it,” sophomore Skylar Jay said. “Before, I was like, oh my god, I’m not going to know anything, but then, when I actually got to the test, it was not as bad as I thought.”
Despite the test going well for most, some students recalled struggling, especially in the math section of the test. Jay said that she was getting asked questions from Algebra 2, which she had not learned yet.
Many of the online standardized tests are adaptive, meaning they adjust the second module according to how the student has performed on the first.
“I would say it did not go the best because I did not know all of the math, but I think I did good on the English part, but it just got harder,” Browne said.
The PSAT exams were online this year, as they have been for the past two years. Many students report that the online version gives them more time to answer the questions, making test day less stressful.
Jay feels more relaxed doing it online as she is able to see how much time she has left for the exam.
“Assignments on paper, teachers rush you on it, especially when you have to get it done,” she said. “And obviously you don’t have the timer, like you have online.”
Although Wednesday was not exactly a favorite for sophomores and juniors, freshmen and seniors got the luxury of sleeping in for an extra two hours due to the adjusted testing schedule. The schedule allowed freshmen and seniors to arrive at school at 10:25 AM without any penalties.
“I actually really liked the two hour delay schedule. I feel like in past years it kind of seemed confusing, but this year it was very well structured,” senior Morgan DeJarnette said. “It was also nice to be able to wake up [late]. I had so much more time in the morning to also do work and work on college applications and stuff, so I was a really big fan of it.”
