Palo Alto High School freshmen, sophomores and juniors will be taking their respective college and career preparatory tests tomorrow, while seniors attend workshops to help them with the college application process.
All test-takers will need a calculator, pencil and their student I.D. Testing room assignments are posted both online on the Paly website and in front of the library. Students should report to their respective classrooms at 8:15 a.m and should get out of testing at 12:30 p.m.
Freshmen will be taking the ACT Explore, which is a test that aims to prepare students for high school coursework and get them thinking about their post-high school careers. It can also be viewed as a pre-ACT Plan, which they will be taking next year, according to the test’s website.
Sophomores will be taking the ACT Plan, which is a preparatory test for the ACT. With the ACT Plan, students get the option to add their scores to a list that is sent to colleges and consequently may start receiving emails and mail based on their scores.
Juniors will take the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test®. The PSAT/NMSQT® is similar to the SAT; however, there is no essay in the writing section. Instead of a score out of 2400, the PSAT/NMSQT® is scored out of 240. If a student takes the test and receives results in a high enough percentile, students participating in this competition can be commended or continue on to become a semifinalist. The highest possible achievement is the National Merit Scholarship® award, which includes a $2500 scholarship to each winner, according to the National Merit Scholarship Corporation’s website.
Seniors will have workshops, with the first session starting at 9 a.m. and ending at 10:15 a.m. The second session starts at 10:30 a.m. and ends at 11:45 a.m. There are seven total workshops that the seniors can choose from, and a full list was sent out to seniors and their parents in an email Wednesday. Workshops include a computer game designed by Knack.it, “Knack!” and “College Essay Help!” with Jack Bungarden, Brett Griffith, Christy Resinger and Kindel Launer, who teach history, visual and performing arts, French and English, respectively.
After testing, there will be free Jamba Juice smoothies on the quad, according to an email sent out by the Paly Staff.