By Myah Hesselgesser and Connor Hawthorne, Staff Writers
Throughout the nation every year over four million students spend over three hours struggling through the Preliminary SAT or PSAT. The test is intended to help students prepare for taking the real SAT, and many students hope to gain academic recognition for their scores on the SAT. With all of the effort being put into these tests, we cannot ignore the question, do the PSAT actually help you in preparing for the SAT and are they even worth it?
Sophomore Ajala Khanal communicated her thoughts on the PSAT after taking them a second time, “My thoughts on the PSAT remain the same: they suck” Although, freshman Molly Maxwell communicated, after taking the PSAT for the first time, that she, “I thought it was kinda easy.”
Some students think that the PSAT are actually helpful in preparing you for the SAT. Junior Kennedy Patterson stated, “Taking the PSAT was helpful because it helped me practice for the SAT.” She then went on to explain that this practice gave her a chance to work on her time management, “I could practice time management.”
Other students have a different outlook on the PSAT, like Ajala who commented, “The PSAT are a very helpful but not accurate way to tell how well you’ll do on the actual SAT.”
The conversation of whether it is necessary to take the PSAT each of the first three years of high school came up with Molly expressing, “No I feel like it should be sophomore and junior year and that’s it.” Kennedy disclosed that she thinks it’s good to take the PSAT’s all 3 years leading up to the SAT, “because it’s not for a grade and more practice is better.”
The length of the PSAT is also commonly discussed. The test is broken up into multiple sections with students only being able to progress to the next section when their proctor instructs them to do so. Once the time has run out for a section, students are out of time and are forced to progress to the next section, regardless of whether they have completed all the questions.
Kennedy revealed that she “completed all the sections, but I did need to bubble in some answers [randomly] because I was running out of time.” Ajala claimed that she “was barely able to complete all the sections” in time. Some students manage to complete the SAT with time remaining, such as Freshman Molly Maxwell, while others like Ajala are rushed. This is to be expected, however, since everyone knows that different people work at different paces. This raises a criticism of the SAT, that the exam only evaluates your ability on taking tests, rather than actual proficiency in the subjects.
In the end, most students agree that the PSAT are a good resource to help give you an idea of what taking the SAT is going to be like. The PSAT allows you to practice some test taking strategies that will help improve your performance on the SAT, although it probably will not be an accurate representation of your aptitude in the related subjects.