Get your #2 pencils sharpened and eat a healthy breakfast, because it’s testing season again for sophomores and juniors.

The PSATs, or Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Tests, are being administered to all sophomores and juniors October 16. This round of standardized testing is meant to prepare students for the SATs that students usually take spring of junior year and fall of their senior year.

Students take the PSATs in order to assess their verbal and math knowledge.

While this is a school-wide testing, technically it isn’t mandatory. It’s not a state or graduation requirement.

“They’re not required. The student can opt out,” said guidance counselor Miss Brittany Coleman, who administers the PSATs at Beaver Area.

But wait. Before you think about having your parents excuse you from the test, remember: the school is paying the exam fee for you, the PSAT is great practice that can’t hurt you academically, and some scholarships are based on PSAT scores.

“It gives you the feel of what it’s like to take a College Board test,” Coleman explained.

The test is standardized, and it’s the same difficulty across both grade levels. The test is timed and cuts off students at 2 hours and 45 minutes.

The 136 questions on the test are split into four sections covering math and language arts, varying from 17 questions in section 3, to 47 questions in section 1.

Students get their results back sometime around December 10-12. An email or text notification will contain students’ scores ranging from 320 to 1520. While the scores don’t mean anything grade wise, and they don’t appear on transcripts, they’re incredibly useful for preparing for the actual SATs.

“You can use the benchmarks and percentiles to see if you’re on track for college readiness and see how you compare against others in your score range or demographic,” explained Miss Coleman.

Although the PSAT scores go to the student, they don’t go to anyone else until students take them in their junior year. Then, if the students choose to do so, they can allow the College Board to send out the scores and colleges can look at them and offer scholarships based on what students earned. This program is the National Merit Scholarship, which students can opt out of, choosing to disallow Student Search Services.

Miss Coleman explained: “Your tenth grade year that you take [the PSAT] is basically like a practice. Your eleventh grade year you take it is the year that they actually take those scores into consideration for scholarships. So your tenth grade year treat it as a practice and your eleventh grade year treat it as an exam.”

Sara Majors, a first-time PSAT taker this year as a sophomore, is not looking forward to testing.

“I’m not excited at all; I don’t know what to expect [to be honest] because I don’t know if they’re going to be as hard as the SAT’s or how hard they’re going be.”

While an apprehensive student may have fear going in, senior Nick Palombo, who took the PSAT’s both his sophomore and junior year, looks back with only positives on his days of testing.

“[SATs] are very similarly formatted [to PSATs] with very similar questions,” Palombo confirmed referring to the PSAT’s benefit.

While Palombo did take the SATs, he didn’t particularly use the PSAT scores to study.

“I didn’t really use the scores as much as I used the test formatting and how to answer questions that looked similar to the actual SAT questions.”

However, Palombo did not opt into Student Search Service, so he was not eligible for any scholarship opportunities through the program.

Besides sophomores and juniors, two underclassmen also will be taking the PSATs. However, Miss Coleman declined to name them.