Sophomore Tiffany Pham prepares for the upcoming PSAT. Photo by John Le.By Elise Tran & John Le, Staff Writers
For the first time throughout the Huntington Beach Union High School District, sophomores are now automatically registered in place of juniors to take the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT).
All sophomores will be taking the PSAT on Wednesday, Oct. 11 at 8 a.m. Juniors may also take it for a fee of $25.
The PSAT is for those who are looking to see what to improve on before taking the actual SAT in their junior year. This is a great benefit for those who are looking into receiving the National Merit Scholarship, or want an idea of what the SAT will be like. Juniors are highly encouraged to take the PSAT to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship.
One reason there was a shift from juniors to sophomores taking the PSAT was to ensure that students have enough preparation and reflection time for the SAT. It gives the students more perspective on which subjects or parts they need to refine.
“I understand the rationale for our tenth graders to take the PSAT is for giving them that extra year of practice and having them know what their score is like one year before they’re going to retake the PSAT,” said school counselor Marilyn Wong. “By doing that, we’re hoping that maybe more students will be closer to approaching the National Merit Scholarship and helping them give extra time to improve their PSAT score, that’s the hope of them improving their SAT scores.”
Unlike juniors who take this test, sophomores are not qualified to receive the National Merit Scholarship offered to students who receive the top scores in the nation. According to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation, the rules indicate a student in the junior year of high school is qualified to be in consideration for this prestigious scholarship.
However, juniors paying the $25 fee to take the exam may not be happy with the change.
“In the previous years, juniors were able to take the [PSAT] for free and this test is usually for juniors where you’re allowed to earn scholarships and money to help you out for college and so forth,” said junior Baraa Zekeria. “And I still don’t understand why the school pushed [the PSAT] back to sophomores instead of juniors, because it doesn’t give a huge benefit to all of the sophomores, but it’s mainly for the juniors.”
