St. Louis High School freshmen, sophomores, and juniors will be taking the upcoming Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test (PSAT). Freshmen will be taking the PSAT on Oct. 22 in the gymnasium. Due to COVID-19 last year, the class of 23 and the class of 22 were not able to take the PSAT. This year they will be taking their missed test. Sophomores and Juniors will take the test Oct. 29. Sophomores will be located in the cafeteria, while Juniors are in the gymnasium. 

The PSAT does take a chunk of time, and students will be given three hours to complete it. There are five parts to the PSAT starting with the pre-administration which, takes 20 minutes, reading is 60 minutes, writing and language is be 35 minutes long, math without a calculator will take 25 minutes, and finally math with a calculator that will take 45 minutes. 

The PSAT originated in 1959 and was made by the College Board. This replaced the Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) for the younger student in school. Now, the SAT is only taken by seniors instead of the whole school. Yet, the PSAT is not for a real grade. It is for students to prepare and be ready for the SAT which affects the college application.  

Joshua Dew, a freshman, is a mixture of both excited and not excited for PSAT. Dew is not looking forward to how long the test is and not knowing what he is getting himself into when it comes to questions. He is also looking forward to seeing his test scores afterward. Dew also stated, “I am very nervous about taking the test because I don’t want to fail (knowing I can’t fail) since I always wanna be prepared the best I can before a test. I’m told by many people not to worry about it or it’s, not a big deal, but I always wanna do better and improve myself even when venturing into the unknown.”

Evelynn Gutierrez, sophomore, is not very excited about PSAT because it’s a lot of added stress in her life. Gutierrez stated, “Even though it’s not the real thing, PSAT is still really stressful knowing you didn’t practice right now you could end up with the same or worse score your senior year.” She is looking forward to PSAT because it gives her a chance to prepare for the future and know what to expect. Gutierrez believes that it’s better to have the PSAT twice this year, and she knows that if people aren’t pushed to do the practice PSAT, then they won’t do it.