PSAT Delay Impedes Students’ Schedules

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SUSANNA AIGA
Staff Writer

Numerous students displayed mixed feelings on Oct. 17 after discovering the postponement of the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) scheduled to take place that same day. The PSAT was instead moved to Saturday, Oct. 20 at 7 a.m.
School Site Council originally planned for the PSAT to be taken after school on a minimum day to allow for more students to participate, as opposed to a weekend or a regular weekday. However, on the day of the test, school administrators learned that test scores would not be valid if the PSAT was taken in the afternoon.
“We found out last minute that the tests need[ed] to be taken in the morning,” Assistant Principal of Guidance Phuong Nguyen said.
This clashed with some students’ schedules due to weekend tournaments or family obligations to attend. Aside from the Saturday date, no other days were available for testing, forcing students to make a decision between taking the PSAT and attending prearranged engagements.
Out of the 371 students who were signed up, 37 could not attend. Of those 37 students, eight of them were unable to attend due to a Speech and Debate tournament. The postponement did not affect the test scores, which will be given at the same time as usual.
“I felt that the school was irresponsible and messed up a lot of our schedules. It feels like [the administrators] treat[ed] it like a joke,” sophomore Julie Yu said.
In spite of these setbacks, this year’s PSAT sold out and was attended by more students this year than last year.
“I liked [taking the test more] on Saturday because I was tired after school and didn’t want to take an additional three-hour test,” junior Marlene Tsui said.
A check serving as a refund will be given to the parents of students who could not attend Saturday’s test.
Additionally, juniors who could not attend the PSAT will still have the opportunity to enter the National Merit Scholarship through alternate routes; a notice will be distributed to those students for further instruction.
Students and administrators alike were dismayed by the untimely delay.
“I was disappointed that [many] students couldn’t take the PSAT,” Nguyen said.