POTTSTOWN PA – Tomorrow (Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010) could be a day of nervous anticipation, sweaty palms and dry mouths among members of the Pottsgrove High School sophomore class. Instead, Principal Chris Shaffer will happily bet that confidence trumps those symptoms, as the 360 sophomores face their chance to take the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT).
Pottsgrove High School sophomores will take the PSATs on Wednesday.
The PSATs are a dry-run (that’s why they’re labeled “preliminary”) in taking the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) as juniors. For many colleges and universities, SAT scores are a determining factor in whether they accept or decline a student’s application for admission. Doing well on the SATs is a big deal in the future of students who hope for more than a high school diploma.
That’s why every Pottsgrove sophomore in attendance is being required to take the PSAT, which will be administered Wednesday morning between 7:35 and 9:45. Although the test fee is $13 per student, not one of them will pay a dime: the entire $4,680 cost is being paid by the school district, Superintendent Dr. Bradley Landis told the Board of School Directors late last month.
- Directors also are scheduled to meet tonight (Tuesday, Oct. 12) at 7:30 p.m. in Lower Pottsgrove Elementary School, 1329 Buchert Rd., Pottstown PA. The meeting is open to the public. Although an agenda was not yet available early this morning, once published it usually can be downloaded here.
“Kids who take the PSATs earlier tend to do better on the SATs later,” Landis explained during the board’s Sept. 28 meeting, “so it’s important to give them the testing experience. Our goal is to improve their SAT scores next year.”
In addition to the sophomores, Shaffer said, 110 juniors also will take the test. The juniors are likely to take the follow-up SATs in December 2010, or January or March 2011.
The PSATs have topped to-do lists of many Pottsgrove High students since this year’s opening day, when Shaffer announced to them – and later to their parents at the school’s open house – that taking the test was a must for sophomores. Students have taken several steps to prepare, and “we know they’ll do just fine,” Shaffer told the open house crowd Sept. 15 in the high school auditorium.
Administering the test will mean other, one-day changes Wednesday for all 9th, 11th, and 12th grade students not participating in the PSATs. To ensure the halls are quiet and sophomores have no interruptions during testing, the high school for them will operate on a two-hour delay schedule.
More information about the delay, and logistics for getting students to and from classes at Montgomery County Community College, Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, and the Western Montgomery Career and Technology Center in Limerick PA, are being posted on the high school website, Shaffer said.
Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ Oct. 12 meeting):
Related (to the Pottsgrove Board of School Directors’ Sept. 28 meeting):
- Confidence Supplants Sweats Wednesday At Pottsgrove
- Pottsgrove Foundation Announces Grant Awards
- Pottsgrove MS Retaining Wall Needs ‘Significant’ Repair
- Pottsgrove Considers ‘Impairing’ Teen Drivers, For Safety’s Sake
- Ringing Reimbursement On Pottsgrove School Agenda
Photo from Clipart.com
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