While the rest of the student body enjoyed a remote learning day on April 13, EHS juniors took the SAT at school. 

Juniors were required to be in their assigned classrooms at 7:20 a.m. for the test. Though the test itself was three hours, with the additional time taken to give directions and take breaks, it was nearly five hours that the students were at the school. 

The test was administered to serve as a measurement of how well the school has been teaching its students, but many students took advantage of having the option to send their scores to colleges. 

Junior Liam Hoeferlin says that he plans on sending his scores on this SAT to a number of schools. 

“I think the SAT is an important indicator for colleges, and I am glad the school provided me with an opportunity to take the SAT (for the second time),” Hoeferlin said. “It allowed me to fix my mistakes from the first time I took the SAT.”

Along with Hoeferlin, junior Nicole Morris was happy that the school provided juniors with the option to take the SAT. She has been studying for the test, and she said that it was nice to be able to take it at the school rather than a separate institution. 

“I am very glad the school gave me an opportunity to take the SAT. It was very nice to be able to take it through the school,” Morris said. “It was also a lot less stressful for me because there was a dedicated day to take the test with the school. Instead of having to juggle both school work and the test, I only had to focus on the test.”

Many were happy that they were able to take the SAT, but others who studied for the ACT would have preferred to have taken the ACT. The ACT is considerably different from the SAT; the ACT has one math, one English, one reading and one science section while the SAT has two math sections, one English and one reading section.

EHS provided the SAT because of the state’s requirement to provide information regarding student progress. The state of Illinois’ contract dictates the SAT as the test to be used to measure student progress, so that is why the SAT was given instead of the ACT. 

Despite Illinois only offering the SAT, junior Grace Kalb has been taking an ACT preparation class for the past few months, and she says that she was likely not as prepared for the SAT as she would have been if the school administered the ACT.

“I am glad I was able to take the SAT at least once, but because I have been primarily studying for the ACT and the two tests are so different, I would have cherished this opportunity a lot more if we took the ACT instead,” Kalb said. “Considering the ACT is also a lot more popular in our area, I think it would have been better if we were given the option to take the other test.”