The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

College Board to no longer administrate SAT Subject Tests, will phase out the SAT Essay

Fallon Dern and Konnie Duan • February 17, 2021

The College Board announced the discontinuation of the SAT Subject Tests and optional SAT essay Jan. 19. Although the SAT Subject Tests were canceled immediately in the U.S., the optional essay will...

PSAT cancelled following updated COVID-19 guidelines

Will Sheehy • February 1, 2021

The school cancelled the administration of the Jan. 26 PSAT on Jan. 8 following a series of COVID-19 guidelines issued by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, which required schools to...

Upper school deans release updated standardized testing plans

Tessa Augsberger • October 17, 2020

In accordance with new guidelines released by the Los Angeles Department of Public Health, the Upper School Deans Office released updated information regarding the school’s standardized testing plans...

Going The Extra Mile

Tanisha Gunby • August 27, 2020

When John Szijjarto '21 opened an email from College Board on Aug. 29, he was disappointed to find out that his SAT exam had been canceled for the fifth time. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, test centers...

Fear of uncertainty

Ella Moriarty • June 3, 2020

I was in history class March 11, and I had everything planned out: I would get my homework done at school so that I would have time to put the finishing touches on months of preparation for the SAT. I...

Upper school deans announce that AP exams are optional

Hannah Han • March 26, 2020

The upper school deans announced in a campus-wide email March 25 that the school will no longer require students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses to take AP exams at the end of the year due to the...

Unfair Advantage: The SAT’s New Adversity Score

Casey Kim • May 30, 2019

Tutoring and prep books combined, Sandra’s* parents spent $2,000 on their child to score a 1570 on the March SAT. Without their support, Sandra said she would not have been able to reach her score....

Start putting extra time to the test

Jessa Glassman • February 2, 2019

As many students struggle to bubble in all of their answers while taking the infamously time-crunched ACT, some are given between 50 and 100 percent more time to complete the exam. These students are...

Bonus Points: Are Expensive Tutors Worth It?

Alena Rubin • October 6, 2016

Blake Wong ’17 sat across from his tutor, reciting his answers to the latest ACT practice test. The room, he said, felt like home, flooded with natural light and complete with warm wooden cabinets. "Yup,"...

Nathaly Blanco

Lucas Gelfond • September 2, 2016

Nathaly Blanco will return as the school’s SAT and ACT coordinator after working for two years as an upper school receptionist. As the SAT and ACT coordinator, Blanco will schedule proctors, assign students...

Students adjust to new PSAT, SAT exams

Jonathan Seymour • January 14, 2016

The College Board released scores Jan. 7 for the 2015 PSAT, which along with the new SAT that debuts in March, had a new structure and scoring system, and the Harvard-Westlake juniors and sophomores who...

College matriculation binders deprive students of privacy

Sammi Handler • January 13, 2016

In the competitive nature of the school, we make decisions every day about how much we want our peers to know about our academic records, but that gets taken away from us once we graduate. In each of...