As many of you may know, beginning in 2025, the state of Illinois will require each student to take the ACT in order to graduate. When this was issued, various controversies arose—everybody was guessing why the state decided to change this now. How has the Class of 2026 fallen victims of this change? To put it into better words, Junior Boston Desmond said, “It’s absurd that we spend time preparing for the SAT just to switch at the last minute because the government doesn’t want to pay more money.” Prior to the change, the SAT was free for all students at public high schools in the state of Illinois. Now, we cannot say the same.

Although intentions were good and risks were low, many people were not delighted with the change. It turns out about 50% of juniors at Hinsdale South have already begun to study for the SAT, and about 53.2% don’t know anything about the ACT. Talk about a lack of communication… All jokes aside, many juniors are truly clueless about this matter. 43.9% of juniors had prior materials to study for the SAT, and on top of that, 45.5% don’t even know how the scoring system works for the ACT. I hate to break it to you juniors, but it is very different from the SAT. Of course we wouldn’t know that though because the school has yet to explain it to us. As Junior Taryn Bazon stated, “It’s unfair that juniors have been preparing for the SAT our whole lives and it suddenly gets switched months before [we] were supposed to take it,” and I believe junior Luke Brossard put it best, “The whole idea is dumb and puts us all in a bad position.”

So really, what is the solution? Junior Bella Ortiz believes that “Everyone should have the option since they are both very different tests and speeds, and they should really inform the juniors more about the ACT and SAT because I never knew anything prior to this survey.” Sounds like a plan to me; glad to be of help, Bella! I personally think that our school should have done a better job explaining the change and preparing us considering over 50% of students don’t know anything about the big test coming up this spring.