Photo Credit: Ashton Macfarlane

M-A students attempting to take a practice PSAT (Posed Photo)

Despite new studies proving that adolescents need to sleep longer and later, and a much-appreciated district schedule overhaul intended to give these teenagers the sleep they need, the PSAT will be held this year at M-A at 7:45.

Yes, 7:45 a.m.

The Saturday test date means that students will have just suffered through five days (barring the luxurious Thursday block-days) of alarms and caffeine. To add a sixth seems to border on sadism.

With students spending money and carving out valuable time from their already packed schedules to take PSAT prep courses, hoping to boost that score just a little bit higher, why in the world would we want to send these students into the test bleary and sleep-deprived, when we don’t have to?

I’m not asking for a major time change; there’s no need to push this to 1 p.m. to accommodate students grappling with their hangovers from the long night before.

But 8:45, when school begins normally, (on an early day), seems the obvious choice.

There’s no need for these sophomores and juniors to be corralled into M-A classrooms, barely after sunrise, for a 3-hour bout of standardized testing.

But be corralled we will, hopefully with a No. 2 pencil and a gallon or two of black coffee.