The Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) is almost a two hour long test that tests high school students knowledge on reading comprehension and math. Sophomore Kaya Pollack questions if the test can accurately reflect a student’s characteristics by a grade. Photo by Ashley Lawrence.
By KAYA POLLACK – Staff Writer
Standardized tests like the American College Testing, Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) and the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) all pave the way to college. These scores affect what college one can get into, or if one goes to college at all.
On Oct. 14, 2015, I took my first PSAT. I couldn’t get rid of the nervous feeling that filled my gut. My fingers continued to drum a scattered beat on the wooden desk. The smell of new test booklets filled my nose and caused my heart to jump.
I have never been one to sweat about standardized tests. I have always done well throughout the years on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests (CRCTs), Benchmarks and End-of-Course Exams (EOCs), so why would I be worried about the PSAT?
I was worried because this test marked the period in which I could start getting attention and mail from colleges. This test was supposed to make me believe in my academic abilities. The PSAT proved differently.
For the first time, I ran out of time to answer all of the questions. I had to take my chances randomly bubbling in answer choices for the last few questions on each section. I hoped that the 25 percent chance I had for getting the answer right was in my favor.
My mind was scrambled in the math section. I didn’t know the material and started falling behind, all without the help of a calculator. I was sent into a panic.
Not to mention that I didn’t know to bring a calculator for the math section that allows students to use a calculator.
I dreaded getting my scores back. I felt like a failure. I had never done poorly on a test like this, but there I was, drowning just a few minutes before taking the PSAT.
320-1520 was the range of scores I could get.
I continued to stare at my computer screen and tried not to freak out. My PSAT score was lower than I expected. In some sections, I scored just fine, but to me, I was screwed.
I was relieved when I saw college emails in my inbox, and they keep coming. But they’re not the big schools that I wanted or had heard of.
There has always been an argument of whether scores from tests like the PSAT, SAT and the ACT truly reflect an individual.
How can a timed standardized test reflect my character or my work ethic? How can two math sections show how good of a communicator I am? How can a reading and literature section determine how funny I am and how I’m a leader?
It seems like all I have been is just a number. My weight, my IQ and the grades that I get on tests are supposed to reflect who I truly am.
But who I truly am is a teen who is determined to be someone, a person who likes to make others laugh and stress the importance of communication.
How is a test, that is almost two hours long, communicate to colleges and teachers who I really am? A number is a stone cold statistic. But I am a human, who has excitement rushing through my veins and a heart that pounds with fear when I almost trip on the stairs and awkward limbs that rarely move to the right beat while dancing.
If a college is going to go off of numbers to get to know me, they won’t know me at all.
