Uppers Take SAT on Campus
By: Joy Chi, Clark Wu, Valentina Zhang
Uppers filed into Love Gym to take the SAT on March 3. According to Standardized Test Coordinator Cori Kingsley, the Academy worked with College Board during the summer of 2020 to become a SAT School Day test center.
Kingsley shared that the SAT would be held on March 3, March 24 and April 27 in an email sent to uppers on January 25. Students who registered at a national testing center for the March 13 SAT were not allowed to travel off campus due to COVID-19 regulations. Students returning to campus on later dates had to abide by the Academy’s two-week quarantine mandate; after interrupting quarantine to take the SAT on March 13, students would not have been able to complete a full quarantine by March 20. Noting the inaccessibility of the SAT, the Academy coordinated an on-campus SAT to allow uppers the opportunity to fulfill their standardized testing requirement.
According to Kingsley, the Academy is also approved as an unlisted Test Center for the April 17 ACT. Additionally, the Academy hopes that students will be able to test off campus at Exeter High School for the May 8 SAT National test.
To meet the quarantining guidelines set by College Board, CDC guidelines and local and state mandates, fewer students were allowed in each test room and all personnel wore masks throughout the exam. Desks were ordered specifically for students to test on campus and to enable spacing.
Upper Max Triff appreciated the Academy’s efforts but found the physical setting distracting. “I took the test on the basketball courts in Love Gym. They should have closed off the area because people were walking past,” Triff said. “The bigger issue was the tiny tables they expected us to take the test on. It’s the same size as those in the dining halls and are clearly too small for an answer sheet and an SAT packet. Calculators often fell off desks—like bricks hitting hard floors in an echo chamber.”
Upper Gretl Baghdadi found the timing of the SAT to be inconvenient. “We’re nearing the end of the term, and it’s been some of the hardest weeks. The test was on a school day too, so we had to balance schoolwork, sleep, and preparation,” Baghdadi said.
Some students noted that the environment of the SAT was informal compared to official testing centers. “I wish the school had allowed us to take the exam in a more formal classroom setting like we did in previous years, but having the comfort of Exeter and my peers definitely alleviated the stress and tension that had been building up during the days prior to the test,” upper Elizabeth Handte said.
“It’s a lot less stressful for the SAT or any test to be on campus because you’re left with less time to ruminate on the fact that you have to take such an important test. I hope that even after COVID, they let us take it on campus,” upper Keona Edwards added.