All students must face testing and it is a major part of academic lives. Nationwide, sophomores and juniors took the PSAT on October 11, 2017 including students at Bowie.

“PSAT is a strong predictor of how students will perform on the SAT,” school improvement facilitator Ruth Widner said. “Students who take the exam will also start receiving information from universities, which makes it more likely that students will start to more carefully consider their options for the future.”

The PSAT is a timed test that simulates the SAT in preparation for the exam in the future. Although the test is does not affect students’ GPAs, it benefits students in other ways.

“[The PSAT] helped [me on the SAT]  because it gave me a grasp of how to take a test with longer magnitude of time and questions,” senior Kandace Blackburn said.

The exam is also known as the National Merit Scholar Qualifying Test (NMSQT), which is a program that, if qualified for, can reap many benefits.

“For juniors the PSAT can be very important because scholarships are available to those who achieve high scores,” Widner said.

Sophomores at Bowie are required to take the PSAT as an introduction to the years of assessments ahead.

“I think the PSAT is pretty pointless for me personally but I can see how it may be beneficial to students who are clueless in these kind of assessments,” sophomore Mandy Pedneau said.

Preparation for major exams such as the SAT and the ACT are strongly encouraged and provided to all Austin ISD students.

“AISD pays for its sophomores and juniors to take the PSAT because it believes every child, regardless of their economic status, should have the opportunity to consider applying to college,” Widner said.