I am never getting into colleges!
I have heard this phrase from various different classmates in the last one month, more frequently in the past week. Classmates who prepare for SAT endlessly, for hours, with shaky hands and droopy eyes — all because of the lack of sleep and excessive caffeine intake.
With SAT looming scarily ahead, this is completely understandable. The Bollywood dance on Tuesday had a very low senior attendance because people were scared to take one evening off from SAT practice.
I am one of those people.
But after coming back from Hostel and looking at our class photo that missed many faces, I wondered if all this was worth it.
From the second semester of 11th grade, most of us were intent on perfecting SAT scores. That led to hours of timed practice tests, breakdowns, and declarations about not getting into college.
Senior year is pretty much the same. I have seen people sacrifice bazar days for scheduled online SAT classes.
I have seen people do practice tests during lunch break, I have seen people do practice tests at early weekend mornings. I personally have done SAT practice very late at night, and I am not alone.
One night at 1: 30 am last week, I was in the warmth of my blanket, almost dozing off. Then I thought, wait, I am still awake. I can finish one non-calculator math section.
I felt guilty about sleeping.
Now for a lot of us, this is our last attempt at this standardized test that determines the fate of our future, a test that was created for the very purpose of preventing Asians from getting into American colleges. But here is what we tend to forget, I tend to forget, SAT scores are just one aspect of our application that colleges look at when they decide who to enroll.
Your grades, PASSAGEs, letters of recommendation, essays give colleges a more complete picture of who you are. Even The College Board says so if you do not believe me.
So, no, it is not the end of the world if you scored a 1200 on your May SAT or your last practice test. Because your worth is not defined by that.
We will get into colleges. As incredulous the idea might seem to us right now, we will. Our seniors before us did, their seniors before them did. In retrospect, what we will not get back are the last 232 days before graduation, conversations with our roommates, and our Bollywood dance night that I am very sad I missed.
We have all worked very hard, and we have all sacrificed many hours of sleep. Let’s all prioritize this weekend, and get a whole lot of sleep on Friday night to surprise our body clock, and ace the SAT.
Archi Arunima is the staff reporter at The Woodstocker
Edited by Nalin Mahajan
thewoodstocker.com 