Preparing for the future is imperative.
For students who plan to go to college, the SAT acts as a major stepping stone for those students. However, due to the limited amount of testing tickets available, juniors and sophomores were taken off the SAT testing list, limiting the number of testers to 700. Students expecting to take the SAT on April 2 were told they would not be testing.
“I found out the day before [I wasn’t going to take the SAT,] and I was so confused,” junior Varunya Pongvaramitchai said. “I was really frustrated. I talked to a lot of my friends and they had the same problem.”
Concerned students and parents emailed counselors and assistant principals about the issue.
“I tried emailing people and got some answers, but in the end, I was just like, ‘It’s their problem; they have to fix it,’” Pongvaramitchai said.
Students were in distress, worried their future would be in jeopardy, especially juniors who had never taken the SAT before, such as Jacky Mena Echegaray.
“So many colleges still have the SAT system where they look at your scores, and it’s a very valuable thing considering that I’m leaving high school soon,” Mena said. “And I would have been very upset if I had to do things that other seniors didn’t have to do. If I couldn’t take the SAT, then if I wanted to go to a certain college that needed it, what would have happened then? I don’t have the money to pay for that [bull corn].”
Others who had tested the year before were frustrated because their prior scores were low, and they had hoped to improve.
“I was really upset when I found out that I wouldn’t be able to take the SAT because I had been hoping for a higher score,” junior Sarah Marquez said. “I was looking forward to it because junior year is the year where it’s most important. I expected my score to get higher and there was no way I could do that if I couldn’t take it again.”
The untested were ushered to the gym and were assured there would be activities to participate in. However, these promises fell short.
“I sat down and did absolutely nothing, because you’re supposed to stay in the classroom, but all of a sudden we all had to go to the gym,” sophomore Abby Casteneda said. “The day before, they told us that there were games in the gym. There was nothing. It was all for the seniors, because that’s where all the seniors were. So, we were just sitting there the whole time in some uncomfortable bleachers.”
Students who scored well on the PSAT were placed in an SAT Prep class, preparing for a test they wouldn’t take.
“It bothered me,” sophomore Sophie Howard said. “Why would I be in [SAT Prep] even though I’m not getting to take the test that this class was meant for? I was originally in Student Council during this period, and I got moved out of it to take SAT Prep. I miss out on a lot of student council things because of being in this class.”
Even though extra help with studying could be useful, SAT Prep classes had few benefits.
“I joined the [SAT Prep] late, but everyone else has the SAT Prep workbook, and we work in the workbook,” junior Catlyn Wadkins said. “I don’t [have the workbook] because they randomly made me join after the first semester was over and they never gave me one. [Without it,] I sit on my iPad, I listen to music, and I color.”
There had been some reassurance for unlucky juniors and sophomores who did not test, as they were told they could take the test on April 11 for free or May 3 with a fee waiver, if they qualified. However, those sophomores were never put on the testing list due to poor communication, and dissent still lingered.
“[Having a second SAT Day] doesn’t make sense because there wasn’t a reason to take people off the priority list,” junior Valeria Olivares said. “I don’t get why they had freshmen testing and not current juniors who need the SAT.”
Even with protest from students and emails to counselors, teachers, and assistant principals, the untested remained so for almost two weeks, unsure of how their scores would be affected.
“It was my rightful place to be able to take the SAT like every other junior,” Mena said. “But because we weren’t, quote-unquote, ‘top priority,’ we couldn’t take it, which I think is stupid, especially since some of us hadn’t even taken it. That just PMOed me.”
Photos by Brayden Riddle
