High Schoolers Gear Up For PSAT
• Local students prepare for test-taking season with workshops, turtors and more testing.
At the first flush of morning on Wednesday, Oct. 11, while many PEN and PV students were reveling in their opportunity to sleep in until the incessant school bell at 10:40, other students were seated in their chairs taking the three-hour national test, the PSAT (Preliminary SAT).
While some students were enjoying a 9 a.m. relaxed breakfast with peers, others were ruminating on which formula to use in the above math question.
Even the night before, while many students were staying up later than usual anticipating extra sleep time, other students were scurrying for non-mechanical #2 pencils and erasers and making sure their calculator would be college board approved.
So why undergo this endeavor?
Well, for many juniors, it is considered the National Merit Qualifying Test, which they can submit to an echelon college to display their strengths.
For others, it’s practice. Eventually, almost every student will undergo the studying and motivation put in to take either the SAT or ACT. Just the experience of taking the PSAT illuminates students on where they are academically and emulates the actual SAT, familiarizing students and enhancing preparedness.
“I have been reading my Barron’s SAT prep book ahead of time so that I feel somewhat prepared for the PSAT,” says Maxine Bennett, a junior at Peninsula.
“The night before, I plan to review using the same book a little bit and go to bed earlier than usual so I am rested and ready to go for the test,” she said.
Many students like Bennett prepare, some more hardcore than others. Even so, there are also many individuals that take it merely for the experience.
Others reflected on how they felt after the PSAT.
“The PSAT was an exciting endeavor filled with an interesting reading section on tomatoes and electric toothbrushes and a math section, which had everyone scrambling to recall standard deviation” said Peninsula junior Josh Kahen.
Whether students were forced by their parents to take this three-hour test or not, they all earned experience without penalty on what these tests inquire and how to prepare for the “real deal”.
