Last Wednesday, 75% of the Desert Vista student body took the PSAT, a standardized test that students take in preparation for the SAT. However, for most of the freshman who were forced to take the almost three-hour-long test, it was nothing but a waste of time.

The Preliminary SAT, also known as the NMSQT, is a standardized test for high schoolers to properly prepare for the SAT, as well as a chance for students to qualify for National Merit Scholarship Corporation scholarships.

The test can be extremely helpful for students who are currently preparing for the SAT, but for freshman who won’t be doing that for another few years, the time spent taking the test was a complete waste of a day. As for those who wish to get ahead of the game, the PSAT doesn’t count for credit until junior year. In addition, many of the subjects students are being tested on are of those that freshmen won’t cover until later years.

At Desert Vista, the day of the PSAT was also an extremely long one for freshmen who don’t necessarily care about their results and have enough to handle already as the newest members of the DV student body. That Wednesday was converted into a full day with the test at the beginning of the day and classes in the afternoon to avoid having to add a day onto the school year. However, those periods ended up being only 20 minutes long, resulting in minimal learning and leaving students frustrated and tired after a long day.

Of course, for some students, the PSAT was helpful; they want to get prepared for taking it for real in junior year, and for the SAT, as it is an important test in the college application process. However, the amount of freshmen in that position is very low. Unfortunately, for the rest of the freshmen population, they were forced to come to school and stay the entire day to avoid getting in trouble for skipping school, when they were not missing out on anything of importance.

In the end, in spite of its benefits to upperclassmen, the PSAT was a huge waste of time and energy for many freshman and the system of determining how this standardized test is taken at Desert Vista should be greatly rethought in order to benefit all students.