The PSAT – A Timeless Source of Teen Stress

The PSAT, a preparatory test for the SAT, is a standardized test taken by all freshman, sophomore, and junior students in the Cape Henry community each fall, This year on October 10th, the anxiety, thrill, and the negligent attitude towards PSAT could be seen and heard in each of the students taking the test. Afterward, despite being told not to by College Board and administrators, a handful of students retreat to social media and create jokes about the test contents. It is common knowledge among all students to go and look for those jokes, sharing them with others and mocking segments of the test. There are many reasons to look forward to the PSAT and many reasons not to. The pressure of a standardized test is overwhelming, causing stress for all students, but it is also beneficial to know what you need to improve upon to do well on the real SAT, a crucial test involving college acceptances.

The Dixon family was interviewed and gave commentary from three varied perspectives: not having taken the test, having taken it, and having to take it in the future. This year, Caroline Dixon, ‘20, got a concussion on the tennis courts the day before the PSAT, preventing her from participating in the test. When asked how she felt about not being able to take the test, Caroline Dixon said she was “stressed” because she “took the math class last year that was needed to succeed on the test” and was upset when she would not be able to apply the knowledge she had obtained. The day her classmates took the PSAT, Dixon reveals she was “anxious,” but felt “relieved that she didn’t have to go through it.” Her younger sister, Cate Dixon, ‘24, has not taken the PSAT yet and will in a few years when she becomes a freshman, and said she “is not at all excited” about taking the tests in the future. Nothing about them is appealing. Christy Dixon, mother of Caroline and Cate, recalled she scored around a 1250 or 1350 on the SAT, showing that the scores aren’t as important during adulthood as they are when you’re in high school, as Mrs. Dixon barely remembered her exact score. She commented, when inquired if she and her classmates made jokes out of the test, that she had. Joking the test and its laughable contents seems to be carrying on through the generations, as does the stress surrounding the test and what it means for high schoolers’ futures.