Los Altos High School will be administering an on-campus SAT and Preliminary SAT on Wednesday, October 13. All sophomores must take the PSAT, while the SAT can only be taken by juniors and seniors. Juniors will have the option of taking either the PSAT or SAT, and seniors can request to take the SAT. The deadline for upperclassmen registration will be finalized later, but is sometime in September.

Students from other high schools will not be allowed to take the on-campus SAT or PSAT.

“The reason why we do SAT testing is not to serve the rest of the communities; it’s to serve our community,” Principal Wynne Satterwhite said. “We want to make sure that our students have access.”

Seniors not taking the SAT will be working on an independent study project at home, such as working on college applications or community service. Freshmen are also instructed to stay at home and will either complete a social-emotional asynchronous activity or learn how to use the online college resource Naviance.

LAHS COVID-19 protocols will be followed as normal during the testing period. Teachers will proctor the PSAT and SAT exams, and it is not confirmed if outside adult volunteers can also assist to proctor the SAT.

It has not been determined whether LAHS will administer an ACT. 

While an on-campus SAT was made available for students last year, this year will be the first where both the PSAT and SAT will be held on the same day. Satterwhite did propose to administer the SAT on a different day, perhaps in the afternoon to avoid interference with instructional time, but ultimately did not receive clearance from the College Board for not meeting time constraints of the test administration.

“I’m a little worried about the numbers to be really honest,” Satterwhite said, referring to the larger number of students taking the exams this year than last year. “We may have a big number, but we’ll wait and see what happens and work with it.”

Similar to previous years, the PSAT will be free for students to take as it is funded by parent donations to the Mountain View–Los Altos Foundation, and the SAT will also be free. If a student has paid for another SAT through the College Board and chooses to take the on-campus SAT, they can reschedule through the College Board website.

Thursday, August 26: This article has been corrected to include information regarding funding for the free PSAT offered to students. 

Wednesday, September 1: This article has been corrected to include the correct information regarding SAT pricing.