Sophomores and juniors were required to take the PSAT on Archer’s campus, unless they opted out, Wednesday Oct. 22. The practice test takes place in the fall each year. College guidance highly encouraged students to take the test in order to gain experience with standardized testing. Juniors who take the PSAT have the opportunity to receive a National Merit Scholarship, while sophomores primarily take the exam for practice purposes. Sophomores who took the test for the first time this year said they heard about the test through social media or friends who had taken it previously.
Sophie Herbert (’28) said that before she took the PSAT this year, she saw videos addressing the format of the PSAT and sharing tips for it on Tiktok and Instagram. Herbert said that because of these videos, she thought the test would be a lot harder than it was.
“I felt like there was a lot of circulation on the internet or friends talking about how it was going to be super duper hard,” Herbert said. “Then when I actually took it … it was hard, but I think it was decent, considering most of us didn’t study.”
Sophomore Lily Bratman said she heard that the math and reading and writing modules give students more difficult second modules if they get a certain amount of questions right on the first module. According to Kaplan Test Prep, this is true for the digital SAT. Bratman said this made her stressed out during the test because it left her wondering whether or not she got the more difficult module or not.
“I heard this thing where if you do good on the first [module], the second [module] will be harder. The second section was easier for me, [so] I assumed that I didn’t do good on it,” Bratman said. “It made me not confident.”
Sophomore Indya Weitzman said she thought the test was challenging, but not initially stressful knowing that it does not matter as much as an official SAT.
“I thought it was really difficult,” Weitzman said, “but it was nice because we didn’t have to study for it.”
Herbert said there were a lot of expectations about the test going in which made it a lot more stressful. She also said the strict rules combined with only having a computer open at her desk produced an uncomfortable environment.
“I think there was a lot of external pressures from other students about what is expected,” Herbert said. “It kind of amps you up before you go take the test with stress about what is going to happen.”
Weitzman said she heard about the testing experience from her friends rather than from social media. What she heard from her friends in other grades helped her know what to expect, she said.
“A lot of people made it sound a lot worse than it was,” Weitzman said. “I heard from other grades that it was a little bit complex.”
Jojo Padawer (’28) said she did not hear anything about the test, so she didn’t know what to initially expect. Unlike Weitzman, Herbert and Bratman, she had no preconceived ideas of what the test would be like.
“I honestly had no expectations,” Padawer said. “Because [my older sister] didn’t take the PSAT or the SAT, I went in blind.”
