The school hosted its annual Scholastic Aptitude Test, a standardized test that measures students’ reading, writing and math skills, on Mar. 23. Although the SAT generally costs money, every junior at the school was offered the opportunity to take the test for free. 

One of the focal points of having the test at the school is for the students’ easy accessibility. The school should be the closest testing site for every student and students are  familiar with the building and its location. “The best part about having the test at Wootton was its proximity to my house. The first time I took the SAT I had to wake up super early, but with Wootton’s location, I did not have to wake up extra early and I could get good sleep,” junior Alex Negussie said. 

Students were separated into rooms by last name and by academic accommodations. Each student reported to their room at 7:45 a.m., and testing started within 20 minutes. Because this is when school starts every day, students did not have to change up their everyday schedules and routines. “I like that the test took place on a Wednesday at the same time that school starts every day because it just felt like going to another day of school to me,” junior Zoe Heller said. 

The SAT has four sections with a maximum score of 1600. The four sections are reading, writing and language, math without a calculator, and math with a calculator. The reading and writing sections get scored together with a max score of an 800, and it works the same way for both math sections. Students can superscore, meaning that depending on certain colleges, they may choose their best reading and writing score and their best math score from all of the SATs that they have taken, to combine to their best score all together. Some colleges allow superscore, while other colleges do not accept superscores.

The SAT has one other competitor, being the American College Test, or ACT. The ACT is similar but the questions are easier, and it has less time provided. In addition, the ACT has five sections. When it comes to superscoring, there is a clear disadvantage with the SAT compared to the ACT. With the ACT, you can superscore your best score from all five sections, whereas with the SAT, you can only superscore your best score from your total reading and writing and your total math scores. 

The test at the school had a variety of students taking it. From students who studied for it, to students who took it cold, to students who had taken it multiple times, the setting at the school took away any reason to not take the test. “I studied and took the ACT, but I took the SAT at Wootton because I wanted to see how I would do, and there was no reason not to take it,” junior Jessica Winson said.