Sports Game Scheduling Forces Students to Take PSATs Early

Before the sun rose last Saturday morning, student athletes were already out of their beds and getting ready to take the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT). After nearly three hours of slouching at a desk while reading and bubbling in answers, varsity and junior varsity teams headed off to their games in the afternoon at Northfield Mount Hermon School.

Nearly all of the sports teams had to alter their game times to allow uppers and lowers to take the PSAT. Boys’ and girls’ cross country and soccer rescheduled their Saturday events as well as girls’ field hockey and volleyball. Unlike last year’s PSAT, which was scheduled on a no-class Wednesday, the school could only administer the test at Exeter High School last Saturday. Although the teams were given accommodations in the form of an earlier testing hour, many students felt that their potential success in both academic and athletic performance that day were hindered by the fatigue presented by the intense PSAT schedule.

“We found it hard to keep a positive attitude when things didn’t go well, and overall, we just played at a slower pace.”

Girls’ varsity volleyball lost for the second time this season with a score of 1-3. Upper Bridgette Han explained that since uppers and lowers make up 11 out of 17 players on the team, many of the girls felt exhausted even before they started their game. Han got over eight hours of sleep and woke up at 5:30 a.m., but by the time she got on the bus to depart for NMH, she felt tired out.

Upper and fellow girls’ varsity volleyball player Molly O’Day agreed with Han and noted that it “absolutely” affected the game.

“We found it hard to keep a positive attitude when things didn’t go well, and overall, we just played at a slower pace,” she said. Although inconvenient, she said that Saturday morning seemed to be the only time to take the test with the schedule presented. “I wonder why we didn’t take them Wednesday like last year,” she said.

Many of the athletes had trouble concentrating during their games because of the stressful situation of getting up earlier than a usual game day. Upper and junior varsity field hockey player Victoria Glidden slept for about six hours before the test. Although the team won 2-0 against NMH, she explained that she definitely felt tired during both her game and the test. She also noticed that many of her teammates were as exhausted as she was while playing.  She thought that the game should have been rescheduled, but NMH hosted their family weekend this past week. “There weren’t even any families watching us, so at least from a JV perspective we did not need to be playing,” Glidden said. She felt that the stress was not really worth it, but the team’s win worked out in the end.

Despite the setbacks of an early start to the day, both the varsity and junior varsity girls’ cross country teams did well against NMH. Head coach Gwyn Coogan was proud of the girls’ success, and from what she saw, she did not feel that the aftermath of the PSAT negatively affected the runners. “The team did great at NMH. I did not really notice if anyone was extremely tired because of the test,” she said.

Lower and boys’ cross country runner Charlie Neuhaus felt that the test had not affected his performance at NMH. Lower and girls’ cross country runner Gabby Allen felt “mentally tired at the meet,” but she said that it only bothered her minimally.

Although boys’ junior varsity soccer had a game at Exeter High School the afternoon prior that did not greatly affect their night before the test, players on the varsity football team expected themselves to be too tired the next day to get up for the test at 7:30 a.m. Their evening game at Suffield Academy and a five-hour round-trip drive caused the team to arrive back on campus at around 1 a.m.

Upper Liam Luddington planned to get up the next morning but decided not to. After feeling exhausted from the day before, he felt that he needed to rest instead of repeating a standardized test. “I didn’t think it was worth losing the sleep and messing up the rest of my weekend to take a test I had already taken,” he said.

Upper Abel Ngala had a similar experience to Luddington’s. The most sleep they could have gotten was five hours. Ngala did not wake up to take the test and slept through it. He explained that he expected this to happen to him, saying that he “needed a miracle” for him to get up on time.

The exhausted athletes hoped that in future years, students would not have to face these issues of sleep deprivation and be forced to choose to prioritize academics or athletics. Although Han felt pressure from the PSAT and the game, she said that she was more anxious about the test and wanted to do her best because the PSAT “commenced the beginning to more standardized testing [uppers] will face throughout the year.”