Worried about the day of the SATs? Your fellow JDHS classmates are going through the same thing too. Millions of students yearly in the U.S takes the SAT in hopes of achieving a high SAT score to be admitted into college they dreamed of.
Most John Dewey High School students don’t really understand the importance of the SATs. The SATs are a way to show a students aptitude and readiness for college work.
If you don’t score a certain amount on the SAT than their would be a possibility that you would not be able to attend the college you wanted to attend.
Teachers like Mr Wong and Ms Dale provide in-person help with each section of the SAT, while college counselors like Ms Mazzola And Ms Wolkoff provide links to free SAT prep online. These teachers work hard in JDHS to provide assistance to JDHS students.
“[The] SATs are a way for Colleges to have a ‘non’ biased look on your grade, because grading could vary from teacher to teacher,” said Mr. Wong.
Not only are the SATs a major factor in your college application, they can also serve to show admission officers how well students are doing well in school.both english and math section serves to show your understanding of college readiness.
Most colleges want to accept students who are doing well overall in school, having students they know will graduate in their college will make their college look better and also maintain the college’s academic standards. “Taking the SAT could help you stand out more on your college applications, even though its not required sometimes, it could help you look better overall,” said Ms Mazzola.
How prepared are John Dewey students? Well not much. Both Mrs. Dale and Mr. Wong have said that JDHS students are lacking in understanding the fundamentals of Math/English subjects. Though students are lacking, there are many ways to help fill up this lack of knowledge.
“Most of the ways I prepare with, [and] most efficiently, are taking advantage of free online SAT study resources. Sites and applications like Bluebook, Khan academy or even Testninja, could give you a much better insight into understanding the SAT and doing better in the SAT overall.” said senior Marvin Wu.
Free tutoring programs and online prep are not the only way to improve. Just reading more books is a strong way to improve your reading absorption and comprehension. “Kids need to read more, the lack of reading hinders a student’s reading understanding and abilities in comprehending the stories more,” said Mrs. Dale. Mrs. Dale recommends college board suite question banks as it provides many different types of prep questions that could help with specific topics such as domains. Information and ideas, craft and structure, expression of ideas, and standard English conventions.
What are the important things to understand before taking the SAT? In the math section, Mr. Wong suggests knowing how to use a graphing calculator to your advantage can help greatly in getting the answers. Understanding how to use each geometry formula could also be useful. In the English section its suggested by Mrs. Dale to having a strong reading comprehension
Even though there are free programs and resources given and informed to students, most JDHS students either don’t use them at all or are unwilling to take advantage of them. “Sometimes students are not willing to join [the] SAT study club,” said Mr. Wong. On average 3-8 students attend Mrs. Dales English SAT class while 10 or so students attend Mr. Wong Math SAT class.
Though not to worry too much if you have gotten a SAT score that seems low, most colleges are turning to SAT or standardized tests optional. Starting at the beginning of the 2000’s colleges in the US started to not require SAT scores and are becoming more flexible, so having a “terrible” SAT score does not mean the end of your college career.
As of 2024 SAT scores are still an option to many colleges, but it might or may not be still optional in the near future. Though right now don’t sweat too much about the SAT, as long as you don’t wait until the last minute to study and study ahead of time you will do fine.
