By Valeria Benitez
After a long, exhausting five-hour drive back from 30A, all I wanted to do was to go to bed and recover from the trip. But the next morning was something I dreaded: the PSAT. It was my first time taking the test, and while I had heard a thousand times that it was just practice for the SAT, the pressure felt very real. The idea of sitting through hours of exam questions, trying to stay focused, wasn’t exactly appealing, but I was determined to do well. After all, this test could open the doors to scholarships and colleges down the line. No pressure, right?
Unlike many of my peers who feared the math section, I was more worried about the English portion. I’m currently in Honor Pre-Calculus, which made me feel more confident about handling the math section, but I knew my English skills could use some brushing up. The reading passages and grammar questions had always tripped me up in practice tests, and I found myself more anxious about interpreting text than solving equations. Still, the occasional geometry questions caught me off guard, as I hadn’t solved for the angle of a triangle in a while.
The drive back from 30A wasn’t exactly conducive to hardcore studying. While my friends snoozed beside me, I tried to make the most of my time by Googling “PSAT practice tests” on my phone. I half-heartedly scrolled through practice questions, hoping that some of the material would stick in my mind. It wasn’t the most efficient method of studying, but after hours on the road, I figured any effort was better than none.
Speaking of fall break, for many of my classmates, it wasn’t much of a “break” at all. Ariana Lotfi, for example, spent her days studying hard, driven by her mom who had enrolled her in a PSAT prep course. “I didn’t have much else planned for the break, so I guess it wasn’t the worst thing,” Ariana admitted, though there was clear annoyance in her tone. The prep course had lasted three hours on Tuesday afternoon, leaving her mentally drained but well-prepared. While I admired her dedication, I couldn’t imagine spending my fall break glued to a test prep class.
Meanwhile, Sidney Wynn took a different approach. He wasn’t forced into a course but chose to dedicate his entire Tuesday— the day before the test— studying. When I asked him why he’d spend an entire day reviewing, his response was simple: “I need Columbia to start sending me emails.” His goal was clear– he wanted to score high enough to catch the attention of prestigious universities. He wasn’t just thinking about this test; he was thinking about his future. He also mentioned working hard to aim for the National Merit Scholarship Program when he’s a junior.
Curious about how others prepared, I wandered down to an alcove, where I found a group of sophomores lounging around. Hopkins David told me he did “nothing” to prepare, a response that didn’t surprise me at all. When I asked him about the difficulty of the test, he said that the math section, in particular, got progressively harder. He even mentioned how it felt like his math section was harder than everyone else’s, joking that Thomas Strang, who sat in front of him, had to solve something as simple as 2x = 10, while Hopkins was grappling with much tougher equations. Hopkins joked that the PSAT reminded him of the ERBs we used to take in lower school, but this was “about ten times harder.”
After the test, Hopkins confessed that he went home and slept for “like five hours.” Bates Castellaw chimed in, saying he retreated to his room to watch Breaking Bad. Expecting to hear something different, I asked Bates what he did to prepare. His answer? “Absolutely nothing.” It seemed like many students, despite their various levels of concern, took a laid-back approach to the PSAT.
Then there was my own PSAT experience—anything but typical. During the first section of the reading part, I was using my finger as a guide when, suddenly, I pressed so hard on the screen that I cracked it. A thick, multicolored line shot across the display, sending me into a quiet panic. I knew stressing out would only make things worse, so I tried to continue, though it was tough to ignore the rainbow crack in the corner of my eye. Just when I thought I could manage, my computer completely shut down.
Panicked, I rushed to my proctor, Mr. Buczek, who called for assistance. Ms. Staddler escorted me out of the room and into the Skybox, where a small team was managing the PSAT. They debated whether I should retake the test or simply redo the section. The clock was ticking, and I could feel my anxiety rising. After what felt like an eternity, they handed me a loaner laptop and sent me to a different room with Dr. Myers, where a student with extra time was finishing up their test. I had only ten minutes left to complete 27 reading questions. I sped through the shorter questions and guessed on the longer ones, knowing I had no time to waste.
Talking to my friends afterward, they all described relatively uneventful PSAT experiences. Hope Maner mentioned the only odd part for her was having to take the test on an iPad, but otherwise, everyone seemed to have a normal, if exhausting, three-hour testing experience.
Finally, I decided to gather some more insights from my friends about which section they found the hardest and which was the easiest. Janey Aaronson told me the PSAT wasn’t impossible but certainly not easy. She added that “the second module of the math section was impossible,” which seemed to be a recurring theme. When I asked if she had studied, Janey admitted she had just winged it. Bobby Briggs had a similar response, saying the second math module gave him the most trouble.
Grace Schmidt, on the other hand, found the English sections to be the most challenging. While she didn’t mind the first module, by the time she got to the second, she was “checked out” and didn’t feel like answering any more questions. It was interesting to see how everyone had different struggles with the test, whether it was endurance, focus, or the difficulty of the questions themselves.
I then headed down to the college counseling office and met with college counselor Mason Brown for further insights. She emphasized that the PSAT serves as a valuable checkpoint in our academic journeys. “It’s important to remember that your scores in 10th grade should be lower than those in your junior year,” she explained.
I asked her if PSAT scores are seen by colleges at all since many students in my grade were stressing about their sophomore-year PSAT scores. Ms. Brown further clarified that colleges do not consider PSAT scores in their admissions processes unless you qualify for the National Merit Scholarship, which only applies to the top 1% of PSAT takers. “It’s truly just practice,” she reassured me.
Ms. Brown also noted that last year was particularly stressful for her, as it was the first time the PSAT was administered online. She wasn’t sure how the technology would work, and she noted how different it was since students had to take everything online (even their calculators), compared to a normal test. Overall, she told me how this year everything went more smoothly and there were certainly fewer tech problems.
In the end, Ms. Brown’s insights provided clarity and a sense of calm about the whole process, reinforcing that while the PSAT felt daunting, it was a stepping stone toward our future goals.
Despite all the chaos of cracked screens and last-minute cramming, it was comforting to know I wasn’t alone in my stress. The PSAT, for all its pressure, was just another hurdle we all had to jump. And in the end, we survived it together, whether we had meticulously prepared, winged it, or, like me, faced an unexpected technical disaster.
