Why Seniors Felt Unprepared For SAT Test

Seniors and juniors feel that they were not prepared for taking the SAT and PSAT. 

 These two very important tests took place on October 12. Since the juniors and seniors took the big test, they have made complaints and critiques about how they were not emotionally supported.    

  “I feel like they just cared about the physical aspect of it and just getting a good score.” said senior Jorge Pineda. Angelina Provost, echoes what Pineda had to say about mental health, “It’s to put your feelings to the side and focus on your work,” she said. “You’re not a human being but a scholar.”  

The seniors and juniors all agreed that they had a lot more help when it came to preparing for the English portion then they did the math. Mr. Matters, an English and journalism teacher, volunteered to do extra prep with students. 

“Matters took us and taught us to learn the different ways we could read faster, skip questions and come back to them later,” said Pineda. Basically to be more efficient when actually doing the SAT.”  

But there was not that support when it came to math.  

“The math section we didn’t really touch up on at all.” said Shirley Constantino, another senior. 

These issues did not go unnoticed. Principal HD acknowledged that the school could have done better, especially when it came to math. She believes that the pandemic had a lot to do with the school being unprepared.

 “I want to say that prior to the pandemic we thought a lot about SAT prep but we didn’t need it as much at the time because we didn’t have those grades,” said HD. 

Now that HD has recognized the issues with this year and the lack of preparation mentally and academically she plans on making many changes so the students have a more positive testing experience. And though she feels the school did not do their best work when it came to the test, she believes that this year’s juniors and seniors should still do great. 

“We are doing junior preparation for our students and we plan moving forward to equally work with our students in preparations for both math and English,” said HD.

 And when it came to supporting the students emotionally, HD brought up past ideas, “In the past we’ve always given a half day. And it is something we are revisiting for the spring session as well as next fall because I think what we will determine to do is allow students to be released with parent permission.” 

 Some juniors had more of a positive look on the PSAT. They had many good things to say about SHA and even the preparation mentally and academically.

“SHA is very focused on college readiness. I used the past prep and studies about a week before the test as much as I could. SHA is the most focused on mental health then any other school I’ve been to.” said Ariel Cummings a junior.