Sophomores of the 2022-2023 school year were not given the PSAT during school hours, unlike past years in which 10th and 11th graders took it for free.

The primary test day was October 12th, 2022 – this was when the juniors took the PSAT. Sophomores are able to take the PSAT on Saturday the 15th and the alternate test day on October 25th.. However, taking the PSAT costs $18, and requires students to go to a testing site on a Saturday or during school. Many students don’t have the resources or time to take the PSAT on their own time, which poses additional challenges to sophomores from marginalized families. Students with higher privilege already have a better chance of doing well on the PSAT of junior year or the SAT. 

Not only does the PSAT help students prepare for the SAT, it is also a chance to earn recognition and qualify for the National Merit scholarship. Feedback from the PSAT can be helpful with practice for the SAT, and the sooner students take the PSAT, the more they can practice for their highest score on the SAT. 

“[The PSAT] should be free and conducted during school so that every sophomore has an equal chance to excel on the SAT,” Stas Ryabkov, a sophomore at Lincoln, stated when asked for his thoughts on equal testing opportunities. Other students spent time preparing for the PSAT because of the possibility of recognition or access to funding. Sophomore Fiona Liu is annoyed because she spent time preparing for the PSAT and now cannot take it in school. She thinks that experiencing the PSAT before her junior year would have helped her get used to it, and would positively impact her score. Another sophomore, Nate Ellis, sees it as an injustice that his class cannot take the PSAT. The PSAT is an incredibly important opportunity,” he explains. “Forcing tenth graders who have the initiative to seek a head start on their futures to jump through hoops is monstrously unfair.”