Spring is SAT season. At Village School, five students took the June 3rd exam. For most of them, this exam will factor into where they apply to college and is a chance to show off their academic abilities. In speaking with the students, most have certain sections (the exam consists of four, plus an optional essay) they feel best about and 75% of the students I spoke with said they find the English sections the easiest. On the SAT, the English section consists of reading comprehension, writing and language, and an optional essay. One student, who may or may not have been joking (this author still isn’t sure!) said he is “a math wizard,” and thinks he will ace the math sections. The math consists of two different sections: one solving problems with a calculator and one without. Ultimately, all of them want to at least score 1100 on the exam and get a high score in both sections. They all agree on the quote that they are “hoping for the best but, expecting the worst.”
In preparing for the exam, all four students I spoke with have had different methods of studying. Like some of them practiced reading a lot of nonfiction, and others practiced most on their weakest sections- liek , practicing grammar, and studying with other students. Yet, mostly all of them took the SAT practice course at Village School and worked with Lauren and Ronnie for the entire second semester on SAT Prep. In the prep course, they took practice past SAT exams and worked with each teacher to see where they needed the most help. They were each given a massive booklet of practice exams; also a pre-SAT day of where they took a past SAT during school and got an estimated score of what they could get on the exam. Many of the students are nervous, “anxious, and have created weekly visits to see Lisa,” to be emotionally and mentally ready
The four students would also agree that they would like to change some things on the SAT. “The multiple choice is extremely simplistic and unfair,” many said that if it was open-ended, then they are given a chance to have more arguments in their responses in choosing a choice. Also, since they are a lot of questions and minimal time to answer all, it’s recommended that all the bubbles on the scantron should get filled out even if the students don’t know. Validly, this shows no interpretation towards the students academic ability and grades them by chance of what answer they got right from guessing on the scantron. “They told us to fill out the rest of the multiple blank choices with our favorite letter or A, to have an increased chance of getting it right.”
Ultimately these students are ready to “just get it over with” and see what they will score. Many said that “this is their first time of taking the exam,” and will retake it if they don’t achieve their desired score. For some of them, the SAT isn’t the only exam that they will have to take in June and will also take other exams like regents or ACT. The SAT will be given at Village school on June 3rd, 2019.
We wish the best of luck to all of the SAT takers.
