The PSATs are the dreaded practice tests that all, or now some, high school students take to prepare for the SATs.

This year, only the junior class took the PSATs. The freshmen and sophomores had to take a new practice SAT to prepare for for new SAT, which is designed to be more logical and applicable to the real world. Additionally, there are no deductions for wrong answers, according to the SAT website.

“I don’t know if [the practice test] actually helped, but it could help us by giving a ‘heads up’ of what we can expect,” sophomore Caroline Cooney said. Sophomores have taken both the old PSATs and the new PSATs.

Sophomore Claire Pika said “they seemed more challenging than [the old PSATs].”

Once the new SATs are taken for the first time, the changes between the old and the new versions can be assessed.

“I liked [the new PSAT]. I don’t know what the old [practice] test was like, but this one was helpful because it was self-graded and you could go home and take a look at what you need to work on,” freshman Nicole Hunter said.

The new SATs will have more real-world problems and no penalties for wrong answers. Additionally, self-grading the new PSATs should help students hone in on areas that need attention.

Morgan Taylor is a Copy Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.