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Why many San Diego high schoolers are crossing state lines to take the SAT

Hundreds of thousands of students who registered to take the college entrance exam in September and October were unable to.

SAN DIEGO — It's a stressful time for students everywhere as the pandemic continues, with no end in sight. Here in California, counselors say high schoolers are in panic mode, trying to figure out how to take college entrance exams.

Bennet Tretiler knew the SAT wouldn't be easy. But the San Diego high school senior wasn't prepared for the extra stress of traveling five hours to Arizona to take it.

“I’d say I’m pretty good at standardized testing or at least for the SAT and I just feel like this is going to boost my abilities to be able to get into a good college,” Tretiler said.

And he’s not alone.

Hundreds of thousands of students who registered to take the college entrance exam in September and October were unable to.

The College Board which runs the exams closed testing centers due to the pandemic. But many parents say they didn't find out until the last minute.

In Treitiler’s case, it was the day before.

“It’s frustrating to me that there haven't been made accommodations for these kids that need a score. Right? Just one score. Any score,” said Bennet's mom Rowena Tretiler.

The tests are needed for students planning to apply to the schools still requiring scores. Some schools still require scores from the SAT or rival ACT. But they’re in the minority.

In California, most colleges have made exams optional this year and UCs won't look at them at all. In fact, a recent court ruling forbids UCs from considering the scores for admissions or scholarship decisions.

“Undoing all of these years of indoctrination about how important this test is is really hard to do,” said Josh Godinez, President of the CA Association of School Counselors.

Godinez said high schoolers are in panic mode, even though they don't have to be. And he urges students to think about the process differently.

“We’re advising students to really sell the character parts of their essays and really sell that holistic review,” he said.

Bennet and his mom hope universities really do just want to get to know him.

“This is the first time in a pandemic like this, so you can't really say for sure that this is not going to impact our kids,” Rowena said.

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