For many people, spring means warmer weather, blooming flowers, and the end of long winters, but for high school students, especially juniors, spring often means sitting in rooms for hours on end taking tests like the ACT, SAT, and PSAT.
This may seem torturous, but taking tests like these can actually have a lot of benefits for high school students of a wide variety of academic ability levels. On April 3, all juniors at Hastings High School will be mandated to take the ACT. This is a process that has been in place for the past two years.
“As of 2017, the ACT took the place of the NeSA test as our state test for juniors,” HHS counselor Jeff Bittfield said. “All juniors are now required to take the ACT. Before 2017, we were part of a five-year pilot program so all of our former students have taken at least one ACT in the past six years.”
While all high school students in Nebraska are required to take the ACT in the spring of their junior year, many students take other forms of national standardized tests. According to the College Board, in 2015 1.7 million students took the SAT, 1.7 million took the ACT, and 3.5 million took the PSAT. Undoubtedly, many of those students were not taking these tests because they were mandated. Many students at HHS take these tests multiple times.
“I’ve taken the PSAT twice, once in sophomore year and once in junior year,” junior Lucy Nielsen said. “I’ll be taking the ACT in March and the SAT in May. I’ll probably take the ACT again in October.”
Like Nielsen, many students understand the value of these tests, whether it is to get into better colleges, qualify for more scholarships, or just practice for more of these tests in the future.
“They served as good sources of practice and experience. It’s hard to emulate the pressure of actually being in a standardized testing environment and so just taking a standardized test makes it much easier in that sense. Practice makes perfect, or in this case, it at least helps you approach perfection,” junior Davis Turpen said.
Nielsen has seen the value these tests serve as practice tools as well.
“Practice tests and studying have definitely helped,” Nielsen said. “The second time I took the PSAT was drastically better, simply because I knew what to expect. It also means I feel more prepared to take the SAT this spring. As far as the ACT, taking practice tests online has really helped me feel more prepared to take it. I’ve done quite a bit of practicing, studying, and reading the ACT prep books in the counselor’s’ office. I think it’s important to feel confident going into tests like this.”
As Nielsen mentioned, there are many ways for students who are thinking about taking these tests to prepare for them. The ACT, SAT, and PSAT are very different than the kinds of tests that most high school students take, mainly because they are timed, which contributes to a higher tension environment. Any experience can make a very big difference when test time comes around.
“The best way to prepare for these tests is to take challenging courses during high school,” Bittfield said. “A lot of students have experienced greater success on the ACT after using the ACT test prep on Naviance.”
Practicing can have a vastly beneficial impact on the scores of students. However, practicing is not the only thing that can affect students’ test scores. Things like proper nutrition and sleep can also influence them.
“Of course study beforehand, but, when it comes to the night before, value sleep above all else,” Turpen said. “I’ve taken many tests, standardized and not, while I was sleepy. Invariably the ones I take when I’m actually awake result in better scores.”
Since all students are required to take the ACT at one point in their high school career, taking other standardized tests can help prepare them for it, and taking standardized tests after them can result in improved scores as well. Either way, national standardized tests like the ACT, SAT, and PSAT can be extremely beneficial for students who are willing to take them, for whatever reason they can find to do so.
“I’d absolutely recommend that students take tests like these,” Nielsen said. “There’s really no downside to it. Worst case scenario, you get a less-than-satisfactory score, but then you know what the structure of the test will look like, and you know the areas you need to improve upon. The more standardized tests you take, the more choices you have when applying to schools after high school.”
