For decades, the cliche for high school students has always been taking the SAT exam. For those who don’t know what that is, the SAT is a standardized test that debuted in 1926 and has always been used as an integral part of the application process to colleges and universities. The SAT is administered by the College Board and tests writing, critical reading, and mathematics.

However, the phenomenon of the SAT’s dimmed during the CoronaVirus pandemic in 2020. Many schools stopped requiring SAT scores to be admitted into their university. For four years now, most schools have been “test optional”. As students everywhere got used to the idea of not having to take the SAT, now some schools are bringing the requirement back.

Most notably, prestigious schools such as Dartmouth, Brown Yale and MIT have started requiring SAT scores again, but the test is now online and a slightly shorter version. Most of the average universities still have the test being optional. This brings up the question. Is the SAT test really still necessary?

Mr. Swan, a guidance counselor here at Hempfield who often takes on the role of orchestrating standardized test preparations for Hempfield students, had a few thoughts on the topic of the necessity of the SAT.

“Necessity is a strong word. But I do think that they are still important for these reasons. For one, they might help with scholarships. With some scholarships, there are levels, and with an SAT score someone could be able to get a higher scholarship. Another thing is that if you’re a junior right now, you don’t know for sure where you’re going to college. The school you end up falling in love with might require an SAT score. So I say, why not take it? Just to have in your back pocket.”

As someone who is personally taking the SAT next month, my opinion on the matter is similar to Mr. Swan’s. I don’t believe that this test will make or break my chances of getting into my college of choice, since the era where SAT’s hold so much weight has simply passed. So I’m not having any breakdowns over the test, but I will be putting in all of my effort since there are still advantages.

All in all, it seems that unless you’re headed to the Ivy’s, the SAT exams are more of a sort of “extra” these days. But as in most anything else, having some “extra” couldn’t hurt!