The clock on the wall ticks away. The squeaking of pencils against paper pervades the air. You look down. The test book in front of you is covered in words that don’t make sense and the simplest math problem looks like the Fibonacci Sequence. A trickle of cold sweat slowly works its way down the back of your neck, threatening to drip onto the linoleum floor. You worry that the whole room can hear the fast drumming of your heart. You feel as if the room is spinning around you. Spinning… spinning… spinning…

Many students suffer from test anxiety centering around the SAT. Much of this anxiety comes from a lack of preparation by the student. Between school work, extracurricular activities, and finding time to breathe, the average student does not have time to study for the test.

Juniors Grace Bovenzi and Jake Cotter have not yet taken the SAT. “I think I’ll do O.K. because I have good PSAT scores, but I’m still a little stressed.” said Bovenzi. She is doing some online prep as well as doing some prep with her friends.

Cotter is more confident despite his minimal preparation. He said that he has not done any prep other than taking the PSAT. “I feel very prepared.” said Cotter.

“I felt fine when I went to take the SAT. I knew that there were going to be some questions that would trip me up. I was pretty prepared but not 100%.” said Senior Ethan Lapointe. He said that he had prepared by doing some online prep and he also bought a prep book. Prep books can cost $15-20.

“I wasn’t stressed for the test because I felt like I was prepared, but I realized when I left the SAT that I actually was not.” said Senior Brianne Engstrom. She said that she did some free online prep courses, but she was not going to spend money to prepare.

Engstrom’s Democracy project her junior year centered around creating an SAT class for juniors to help them prepare. The central question is: should NKHS offer a semester class with a curriculum focused on helping students prepare for standardized tests?

The SAT is an important test. Most colleges take students’ scores into consideration during the admissions process. A student’s admission to their ideal college could depend upon their scores. If the school is devoted to providing students with every opportunity to excel, then why are students not prepared for the SAT? A semester-long course devoted to helping students prepare for the test would give students the confidence and test-taking skills they need to triumph on the SAT. It would help the students who need a more personal touch when learning; they simply can not learn how to take a test from a book or computer. It also levels the playing fields for students who can not afford expensive and time consuming prep courses.

“It was difficult for me to prepare for the SAT on my own time,” said Lapointe.

He and Engstrom said that they would have taken a class junior year if it had been offered. Both Bovenzi and Cotter also expressed an interest in taking such a class. The school should be committed to helping students prepare for academic challenges. The SAT is a significant test which can determine a student’s future. A one-semester class will give students the preparation they need to enter a testing room with confidence.

“I wasn’t stressed for the test because I felt like I was prepared, but I realized when I left the SAT that I actually was not.” – Brianne Engstrom, senior

“I felt fine when I went to take the SAT. I knew that there were going to be some questions that would trip me up.  I was pretty prepared but not 100%.” – Ethan Lapointe, senior