The never ending, stress bending, brain busting time of the year is finally here. SAT testing week has arrived fast and furious, and more different than ever.
The SAT is an entrance exam used by most colleges and universities to make admission decisions. Because of this, the SAT can be nerve-wracking for many students. It is most often seen as the determination for your future. Freshman and sophomores take the practice SAT, and juniors take the real thing. But what makes the test even more stressful this year is its change from paper to fully online. This is because the College Board, the program in charge of the SAT, said that making it fully online will be more adaptable. Students will use their school chromebook on the digital app Bluebook to take the test. There are multiple pros to this including getting your test score back in just days, not weeks. The format of the test has also been shortened, from 3 hours down to just above 2. Long essay questions have also been removed, being replaced with short paragraphs. But this doesn’t make the SAT any less harder, you still have to know the basic reading, writing, and math skills to get a good score. The online format definitely makes it harder, with somewhat more pressure added on for some students. “I think this sounds like a fire waiting to happen,” says junior Heidi Escobedo who took the test this Tuesday, “I think I did well on the reading and writing part, but I think I could’ve prepared for the math section more.” The official SAT here in Palisade was taken on April 16th. All students, except for Seniors, attended.
