After the four-day weekend, on Wednesday, October 11th, the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test (PSAT) will be taken by 10th graders the first half of the school day. Starting at 9:00 AM, sophomore students will get down to business taking the PSAT. Freshman students, however, will have a late start to the school day and have to be at Lebanon Trail at 12:30 PM. Lunch as well as third and fourth period should be scheduled as normal.

The PSAT is regularly taken every October in school by 10th and 11th graders and is also known as the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT), because the PSAT often determines if a student qualifies to get the National Merit Scholarship. Despite the test usually establishing those eligible for the scholarship, Lebanon Trail students taking the PSAT this year are not going to have the opportunity to qualify for this scholarship. When students take another PSAT/NMSQT in 11th grade, then they will be up for the National Merit Scholarship.

Most 10th graders are less than excited about testing, but some 9th graders have a different take on the PSAT due to their late arrival on testing day. Freshman Ashita Mutyala is mostly glad she won’t have to come in school early, saying, “I get to sleep in.” Some freshman see a negative side to the late start as well. “I get to miss my first two classes, which I’m not that happy about, because they are my favorite classes,” Ashita continued about her biology class and her A-P human geography class.

Additionally, students are allowed to bring calculators, but there will not be any calculators provided at school for the test. A list of allowed calculators along with more information on the PSAT is available in the PSAT packet given to students in their ELA classes or in the Trail Blazer Telegram. The link to the most recent newsletter on the Trail Blazer Telegram is e-mailed weekly to parents and students by Lebanon Trail.

Students also need to go to the auditorium on both Tuesday and Thursday during Trail Blazer Time to get information on the PSAT if they don’t have mandatory tutorials that day.