For nearly a century, the SAT has served as a standardized testing measure for high school students, helping college admissions officers determine who is best qualified for a spot in their first-year class. Early Tuesday morning on April 21, Juniors across AAPS sat down to take the SAT, six days after a tornado forced the district to reschedule the exam. The storm struck around 1:45 a.m. on April 15, hours before students were initially supposed to take the test.
The SAT is offered seven times per year outside of school for a fee of 68 dollars, and it is administered at CHS once a year for free. The test has three subject sections with five modules: two multiple-choice reading and writing sections, two multiple-choice math sections and one long essay section. The test takes about three hours to complete.
The SAT is a graduation requirement, and for some, an important part of their college applications. However, the test’s role in admissions has shrunk in recent years. According to FairTest, 80 percent of four-year colleges and universities do not require SAT scores as of 2025.
This is a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. At the beginning of the pandemic, testing centers around the country were closed down, making standardized testing difficult. In light of this, most universities switched their admissions policies and became test-optional for the 2020-21 admissions cycle. Most colleges have extended their test-optional policies beyond the pandemic.
This has changed how some students think about the exam. Junior Nora O’Neill felt nervous ahead of the SAT, but was trying not to let it overwhelm them. They see the exam as relevant to their future college application, but not the only thing that will impact where they get accepted to.
“The main thing that I’m telling myself right now is that I can retake the SAT and it’s not the end of the world if I don’t do well on it,” O’Neill said. “Plus, I know a lot of colleges aren’t looking at them as much anymore.”
Junior Lily Rydell did not feel confident heading into the SAT. The early start time and four-hour testing were very stressful for her. However, Rydell hopes to pursue a major in music in college, so the stakes felt lower for her than they might for other students since SAT scores aren’t looked at as much when determining placement in music programs. Rydell also appreciates that many colleges have moved away from requiring SAT scores.
However, Rydell believes the exam carries a heavy social weight in Ann Arbor. Among her peers, even scores well above the national average are treated as unsuccessful.
“If people score less than a 1400, others just assume that they’re dumb,” Rydell said. “That’s not the case, especially when that’s much higher than the average. But we’re just in Ann Arbor, and people are just geniuses, I guess.”
Her advice for anxious classmates is to relax before the test, and to remember that scores can be withheld from applications.
On the other hand, Junior Addie McCreadie felt confident before the SAT. She started preparing for the SAT two months before the testing date. To prepare for the exam, McCreadie put in hours every week to familiarize herself with the structure of the test and the different types of questions they might ask her. She used College Board, the organization that develops and administers the SAT, to take practice tests and answer practice questions.
“I use the practice tests to gain an accurate point of where I’m at, and then I use my score breakdown to determine where I can improve and where I’m falling short,” McCreadie said. “Then, I go into College Board’s question bank to practice the specific domain of questions, so I can zero in on that.”
McCreadie believes the SAT doesn’t accurately measure people’s academic performance or proficiency. She believes there are many other aspects of a college application that can give a better depiction of what kind of student someone is, such as essays, which reveal students’ writing skills; extracurriculars, which depict what students are interested in; and classes, which demonstrate students’ commitment.
“The SAT doesn’t measure how well you perform in school or how hard you work,” McCreadie said. “It only measures how well you can take the SAT. For example, in the math section, people don’t even try to learn math. Most people just try to use Desmos to get the question done as fast as they can.”
Even though the SAT remains a significant milestone for many CHS students, its importance is clearly evolving. As more colleges adopt test-optional policies, students are beginning to view the exam as just one piece of a much larger picture.
