Maybe it’s the nostalgia of the SBAC quality of the test and being in a room so ambiguously seventh-grade, but I thought the online version of the PSAT was way easier than the ones from previous years. My english questions had paragraphs for each, not like the paper version where there was an entire article with graphs and everything; I don’t know if everyone’s was like that, but I seriously preferred that to the headache-inducing paper version. I hold firm to my belief that I read faster on paper than on a screen, but I might have to reevaluate after that test. I woke up so tired that morning (even though I went to sleep early and ate a hearty breakfast, (while reading “The PSATs are Tomorrow” Email) and I literally took a nap in the ten minutes I had left in the first section, leaning back in my chair with my arms crossed, dad-on-the-couch-“just-resting-his-eyes” style. 

Now, I do understand why some people don’t want to take the test – they think colleges won’t look at it, it’s stressful, they don’t have time for test prep, whatever – but literally all you have to do is go to school. You don’t have to organize when and where you’re taking it, you don’t have to take it on a weekend. I am aware of my overachiever-ness, but I feel like it’s just stupid to not take it when the school (shout out to Ms. Yanke) makes it so easy for us. Even if you get a low score, it doesn’t really matter. You can go to a test optional or blind college (they still influence test optional schools, though. They can literally just require it, why are they pretending?), or take it again, because the school provides the SAT twice! And your highest scores for each section will be the ones colleges see! Yes, I used exclamation points, not in the buffering-my-words way, in the you-all-frustrate-me way. Just do it. It’s none of my business, but seriously, just do it.