The time of stress for juniors reached its peak on March 5 with SAT day.
Every year juniors across the state are required to take the SAT. The SAT is a standardized exam Indiana uses as its graduation qualifying exam; historically, SAT test results have been used by most colleges and universities to make decisions on who to admit and deny into the school, according to Princeton Review. SAT was short for “Scholastic Aptitude Test”, but as it was used more it lost its meaning and was referred to as only SAT, according to College Board.
The SAT has a preview called the PSAT which is taken by sophomores, or freshman if they pay to take it, to help prepare for the big SAT the following year.
Junior Kate Walker says she studied a lot for the SAT. Using books and online videos so much, she thinks she had overprepared herself for the test.
“[Compared to the PSAT], it was a lot easier,” Walker said. “It took way less time and it was a lot less stressful than the PSAT, and the teachers were less stressful about it.”
Where did the SAT come from? Many small contributions over time created the idea to make the SAT, according to PBS. The invention of IQ tests, College Board, and knowledge assessments were all small inventions made that led to the idea to create a test to assess high schoolers knowledge. These were eventually combined by Carl Brigham in 1923 who was added to the College Board committee to develop a test to be used for high schoolers. By 1926, the test was first given to schools being called the SAT.
Most of the practice for the SAT is done by teachers and counselors at school through WINN sessions or class time with any math and English class that has a junior in it. There are countless Youtube videos and online websites full of practice tests and what to expect on the SAT updated every year.
Junior Kadin Bush says he thinks he did well in the math portion of the SAT by taking multiple advanced math classes since middle school.
“AP calculus really helped me prepare [for the SAT],” Bush said. “We did a lot of Khan practice in class, and I also did Khan Academy at home in hard mode that really helped me prepare.”
A lot of people have varying opinions on the SAT. Some people may think it’s a waste of time with an inaccurate representation of their knowledge, while some people think it’s very helpful and a test they look forward to in preparation for their future.
Junior Addison Campisano started to study a month in advance for the SAT using Khan Academy and online practice that she did alone and with her friends. Campisano thinks Khan is the most useful website to help study for the SAT.
“I felt really good about the SAT,“ Campisano said. “The English part was extremely easy for me. I was a little challenged on the second math part, but I heard if you did good on the first math part, your second part was supposed to be harder. So, overall I felt like it went really smoothly.”
The SAT is made to show what Juniors have learned through their time in high school so far. A psychologist named Claude Steel said that the SAT has been found to measure only about 18 percent of the things that are learned in school, and makes it not a very good predictor of how a student will do in college, according to PBS.
“I took a lot of harder math classes in high school and middle school,” Bush said. “So if you’ve taken all the harder classes before, I feel like [the SAT] is a good representation of what you’ve learned in high school.”
Along with how well of a representation of knowledge is, the SAT also tests people’s knowledge.
“I’m not a big fan of standardized testing,” Campisano said. “I think so many people are smart in so many different ways and I think in earlier years, a bad SAT score may have ruined a chance at getting into a good college for a lot of students. So I don’t think it’s the best way to test someone’s knowledge [anymore].”
Some colleges have started to not require standardized test scores in recent years with more colleges and universities following this trend too, according to BestColleges.
“I think now [the SAT is more of a big deal than it should be] because it has changed so much that I don’t think colleges value it as much as they used to,” Campisano said. “The SAT used to be really hard and only for a certain set of people. Now they’re making it a lot more inclusive, which is awesome, and a good SAT can still help you get into college, but I also think you can get into college without an SAT score.”
“I think the SAT is overhyped,” Walker said. “I feel like it shouldn’t be as hyped as it is. As a kid who plans to take a gap year before college, I see why it’s needed to graduate high school but it shouldn’t be such a big deal.”
