It’s that time again that every sophomore dreads, and that’s ISTEP.

ISTEP is designed by the Indiana Department of Education to measure students’ mastery and achievement of basic skills, particularly reading, writing and mathematics. It begins on Feb. 26 and ends on Feb. 28, with three days of testing. For students not testing, they will arrive late to school on these days.

Senior Kensington Speer said she never studied for ISTEP and she thinks that the assessment is more about shaping the knowledge you’ve learned throughout the classes a student has taken. She also gave her advice about ISTEP. She said, “Just get sleep, eat breakfast and be confident in yourself.” As for the test, she said, “Try to work at a decent pace and skip and come back to questions you don’t know.”

Junior Ashley Richards also passed along her thoughts. “Some advice I can give to students taking ISTEP is get plenty of rest, have a healthy breakfast and try to manage your schedule at night. Many teachers still give homework and tests that week of ISTEP and students have a struggle multitasking, which is not possible according to my freshman year research paper. The best advice that I can give is learn to manage all and take care of school work early so you’re not up too late.”

Richards also provided some review tips for the tests and said that it’s good to review from Algebra I and geometry. “Study notes, handouts, old test and quizzes. These will help you get an idea of what’s on ISTEP,” she said.

All testing will take place in Loretto Hall. Room assignments have been emailed to students and are posted at the Loretto courtyard entrance.