Students stressed for tests
High schoolers should not have to take the PSAT
Study and buckle down. PSAT is a common cause of pressure on students, anxious to do well on a test that might or might not determine the outcome of SAT scores. Students have stressed over these exams for years on end and it might never change.
Students stressed with the known fact PSATs are on the way and ready to hit all teens head on.
Kids know the stress is going to come a lot faster than it seems at the start of the school year. Even with no preparation, or any clue what the contents of the test may hold, everyone must take the exam. With no prior knowledge or idea about what’s on it, many high schoolers go into it with a blank mind and shaky hands.
Teens take the PSAT for the first time in the beginning of high school, having to take the test once is enough to get the general idea. To have students constantly taking the PSAT every year is an overkill. The exam doesn’t drill anything into young people’s minds, it’s just practice for the real deal. Though it offers practice, the general idea of the test can be grasped by taking it once.
“Studies have again and again shown that standardized testing doesn’t translate to better cognition and hasn’t been found to have a causal effect on success later in life,” according to cpr.org.
The exam also takes up most of the school day interrupting lessons that could’ve been taught. Some classes fall behind depending on the hour they have a class, which makes catch-up work overwhelming. In some classes, practice tests are given that look like identical and shortened versions of the PSAT. They give the same results in a shorter period of time.
Some will say that the PSAT prepares students well for the SAT, helping them accumulate information of what the real test will look like. However, the test that has everyone stressing years before the big exam doesn’t really help students at all. There are plenty of other ways to get students prepared; like the afore-mentioned PSAT practice tests and SAT studying textbooks. It’s all one big loop of the same information, some ways are just shorter and easily accessible at any time for a better advantage.
All students need to focus on is the classes at hand, adding more standardized tests won’t help anyone in the long run. School boards should consider cutting the PSAT or at least the amount of times it has to be taken through the years.
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