For many sophomores and juniors, this school year is the first time they will face the most crucial tests of their high school careers, ranging from the ACT, the SAT, and a wide variety of AP tests. While this may seem daunting to even the brightest of OHS students, one must not forget that a large demographic of students on campus hold a wealth of knowledge and advice on the subject.
The graduating class of 2024 has come a long way, managing to survive the barrage of tests thrown their way and living to tell the story. Many seniors wish to share their wisdom with younger students who may be dreading their first standardized test, with a majority in agreement that the PSAT is simply a first step in one’s journey toward more critical exams.
“My advice about [the PSAT] is don’t study for it,” said Delani Dermer, senior. “Go into it not knowing what you’re doing so that you know what you did wrong, and you know what to study for the SAT.”
While the PSAT is merely a stepping stone and should not present a major worry to juniors and sophomores, upperclassmen still stress the importance of studying for other exams.
“Don’t just do the problems that you know you’re going to get right because that’s a confidence boost, but you should definitely do problems that you know you’ve missed before, that you’re struggling with,” said Harsh Sidhwani, senior.
One must also remember that studying is not just done outside of school but can actually occur in the classroom.
“I think a lot of the preparation comes in how you approach your classes. If you’re working hard in your classes before and being thorough and doing what you need to do, then you should be able to stand out during the test,” said Ellie Shapiro, senior.
Even with the immense amount of pressure put on students to perform well on these tests, OHS seniors advise against stressing for the SAT and ACT.
“With the PSAT, you can take that multiple times, and then the SAT and the ACT, they’re all pretty similar,” said Braeden Baker, senior. “So you get used to it, and then usually your highest score ends up being last.”
The SAT and ACT are not the only exams students at OHS will be faced with as the year progresses; AP tests present one of the largest challenges to both underclassmen and upperclassmen. Luckily, come 12th grade, many seniors have garnered specialized knowledge for success on specific AP exams.
“For APUSH, I would absolutely say watch Heimmler’s History reviews. He does unit summaries at the very end, right before the AP test,” Dermer said.
Seniors even have advice to give for AP courses that are not content-based but are more focused on building a certain skill or a portfolio.
“For Seminar, which I took junior year, it was mostly just time management and trying to avoid the procrastination of just having one assignment…and not realizing the effort it takes to actually put everything together in time,” Sidhwani said.
With all of the strain students are put under during their most stressful years of high school, seniors said they found comfort in their routines and rituals.
“For breakfast, every time before a big test, it’s always eggs and toast,” Sidhwani said. “[Also], I like to lay out everything in its place where I know it’s going to be. Everything like tickets, my calculator, all that stuff. I just put it on my desk in one pile, and always do that the night before.”
After everything is said and done, seniors recommend celebrating every victory, whether it be a personal best on a particular test or simply completing the test to begin with.
“I ran around screaming when I found out I got a 36 on the ACT,” Baker said.
However, OHS seniors know that all of the studying in the world cannot make miracles happen, and a test score is simply a number and nothing more.
“Just remember, ultimately, it will be okay,” Shapiro said.
