During their junior year, high school students are eligible and recommended to participate in the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT), or the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT).

     A sufficiently high score on the PSAT/NMSQT can qualify you for a National Merit Scholarship.   A select few students who receive exceptionally high Selection Index scores will receive National Merit recognition as Commended Scholars, Semifinalists, or Finalists.

     In order to maximize juniors’ potential to qualify for National Merit, Schreiber was granted an additional opportunity to proctor the PSAT on Oct. 30. While it was initially offered on Oct. 11, the College Board granted Schreiber permission to offer an additional PSAT test date for juniors.

     Schreiber likely offered this date to avoid various conflicts, such as the girls varsity tennis team competing at the Nassau County Individual tournament at Eisenhower Park.  This additional test date was a great opportunity for students to qualify for National Merit, even if they were unavailable during the initial test date.  Juniors also take the PSAT to prepare for the SAT, since the PSAT serves as a preliminary SAT and is a very similar test, so this testing date gave students an in-school opportunity to prepare for the SAT.

     I thought it was a really good opportunity since it gave students who had conflicts during the original test date a chance to make it up locally.  Especially for juniors, it would have been unfortunate for someone with a chance at receiving National Merit recognition to miss out.

     However, this testing date required students to miss the first three periods of the school day, posing somewhat of an inconvenience for both test takers and their teachers.  Students had full responsibility to make up all work missed, which some felt to be unfair.  Additionally, morning announcements were still given, despite the test taking place.  This distracted students from their test, which posed an additional inconvenience since the test is timed.

     Additionally, only juniors were given this opportunity.  Sophomores often take the PSAT as practice for the SAT and to determine their readiness for Advanced Placement (AP) classes, so sophomores who couldn’t take the Oct. 11 test were not given the same opportunity to take the test on Oct. 30.  We find this unfair for all the sophomores in the building because they should get the same amount of opportunities to take these standardized tests as juniors and seniors do.