How Students Are Fighting College Board with Memes

Every year, the tradition of flooding social media with PSAT memes is passed down from grade to grade. The College Board requires test administrators to explain multiple times that sharing the test materials in any way will result in voided test scores. What CollegeBoard doesn't realize is that the issue with taking a practice test is the grade doesn't really matter. On the real SAT, no one would dare jeopardize their future for a meme. But on the practice test, with how little impact it has on our future and with the bizarre passages the College Board provides in the reading comprehension section, the opportunity is just too enticing to pass up.

Most of the memes are generated from the reading and grammar sections of the test, which provide long passages to go along with many questions. One of the most popular memes to come out of this year’s PSAT was derived from a passage about “ambiverts” selling more products than introverts and extroverts.

Another meme that emerged from the reading comprehension section was derived from a pair of passages that came from the 1850s which discussed giving women the right to vote. One of the sections argued that if women were allowed to vote, home life would fall apart and children would be left dirty and disregarded.

The math section can also yield some quality memes due to the elaborate word problems the College Board composes. One such meme that I enjoyed was about a problem that required students to figure out how long it would take a person to dig as much dirt as a gold dredge can in an hour based on data that was provided.

PSAT memes are a result of teenagers’ rebellious spirits that go directly against the College Board’s rules. The memes may corrupt the secrecy of standardized test questions, but at least they give students something to look forward to while they sit for four to six hours of testing.

By Jake Bogartz