SAT Prep: It’s Pretty Dope

Every Saturday morning, more than 250 students meet in the cafeteria for three hours.

While an extra three hours of school seems like something out of the high schooler’s worst nightmare, the sacrifice is not made in vain.

These juniors are studying for the Scholastic Assessment Test, more notoriously known by the acronym SAT.  The SAT prep book called Up Your Score: The Underground Guide to the SAT, written by high schoolers themselves, claims that the test stands for “Slimy and Atrocious Torture.”

Thus, the task of teaching almost 300 juniors how to take on this Godzilla of high school tests is undeniably formidable.

Surprisingly, the man who dared to take the challenge is none other than our Supervision Assistant Principal, Mr. Arnold.

So what does Mr. Arnold know about the SAT?

Turns out he is actually much more than qualified to be an SAT instructor: his own SAT score is near-perfect, he attended UCLA as well as Harvard University, and he has many years of SAT prep experience behind him.

Granted, it’s still hard to imagine that anyone would cut out more than 3 hours of their weekend to prepare an SAT course and deliver it to up to 300 students. And on top of that, the class is free, which is a bargain compared to the prices ranging as high as a thousand dollars from classes at Elite, Excelcius, and the Princeton Review. But why?

“I believe that education is a civil right,” Mr. Arnold explained, “and all knowledge should be free.”

Moreover, the class entails more than just learning how to take a test.  “The SAT Prep Class is about giving students choices. Bottom line. Mr. Arnold and Fountain Valley don’t care about how high your SAT score is. That doesn’t fall under the umbrella of the ‘purpose’ of high school. Instead, we care that when you graduate from FVHS, you have the ability to be anything you want to be. And that your choices haven’t been limited by grades, course schedules, or standardized tests.”

As a class geared more towards helping students find the path most suited to them, Mr. Arnold shows students that there is more out there than OCC, the CSU’s, and the UC’s.

After showing a YouTube video of Harvard students in their prime (partying with painted faces and spandex suits), he explained with a smile: “Everybody thinks Harvard is this nerdy place, but it’s actually really rad, it’s a really rad place.”

What really motivated him to help prepare students for the rest of their academic lives?

“I just care about kids.”