This year’s sophomore class is expected to take a double hit of standardized testing. Teachers are intensely preparing students; as this is the last grade to take CAPT tests, they aim to finish with a bang. As the month of March begins, sophomores are feeling the heat and the advice they are hearing over and over: It’s all in how you prep.
Depending on the class, each teacher supplies their students with various material to practice for their exam.
“Tasks are given to sophomore classes monthly,” John Wetzel, a mathematics teacher, said. “Teachers decide from a bank of prepared materials how to best prepare their students for the mathematics CAPT.”
According to several sophomore students, the teachers are overdoing the amount of practice.
“I have noticed that we started way too early for CAPT this year,” Rachel Morrison ’16 said. “I think we have done too much practice, and we are drawing away from learning anything but CAPT.”
However other students are content with the all the practice, knowing it will help them in the long run.
“I have taken practice tests in Chemistry and done multiple CAPT practice essays in US and one in English,” Jojo Adler ’16 said. “The early preparation helps because there are those little details you have to pay attention to.”
Students claim that although they are tedious, taking standardized tests in tenth grade contributes hugely to learning how to prepare well for bigger tests.
“CAPT teaches us how to get ready for important tests like the SAT and ACT,” James Banbury ’16 said.
But they are not done with testing yet; on March 2, the sophomores faced the PPSAT. Hopefully some of the CAPT preparation they’ve been working on so hard will carry over.