Photo Credit: The Pioneer Woman

I have never been a fan of standardized testing, no matter how well or poorly I did on the test. Test days are full of sitting in the desks for longer periods of time, working under the pressure of being timed, making sure you have time to fill in the answer sheet, and realizing you do not understand something you are being asked. Test days feel longer than school days and the standardized tests are another source of anxiety and stress for me; however, I get through them, and try to learn from each test I take.

On Wednesday, Oct 14^th, I took the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, which was realigned to match up with the changed SAT that the College Board will start administering in March of 2016.

In my personal opinion, the PSAT I took Sophomore year was a better test for me than the PSAT I took this year as a Junior. The PSAT Sophomore year had more sections, but the work was more evenly distributed, and I felt I had adequate time to complete every section. The passages were much easier to work through, but still challenging like they should be. The math section was fair and there was enough time to complete every math section given.

The PSAT I took this year had less sections and I felt the work and time was not evenly and proportionally distributed. I felt the reading passages were longer than I had expected them to be and were too dense with information, but I found myself still having time left over to check over my work. Later, I was rushing through the math section, both the calculator and non-calculator sections, in order to make sure I completed, or at least attempted, every single problem.

Knowing that this is how the new test will be, I have started preparing for the old SAT test days to make sure I get to take the test that I feel I would do better on.

By Gabriella DePinho ’17, IHA News Senior Editor