In the fall of the 2024-2025 school year,  Cosumnes Oaks High School hosted its first SAT, officially becoming a testing center. Since then it has accommodated students from across the Sacramento region and beyond almost every other month — many of whom are high school seniors in desperate search of a testing center.

The SAT is a standardized math and English exam used for college admissions for the past 98 years. Last fall more than 1.9 million students took the exam. Yet, many Northern California high school students travel hundreds of miles to take the SAT because they cannot find a seat locally. 

Within 24 hours, Cosumnes Oaks’ August test date was full. And as spring test dates approach, the demand for SAT testing centers remains high. Angelina Gan, a senior at Cosumnes Oaks, took the exam at her home campus in October.

“I originally planned to take it in Nevada, so that automatically took off an 8-hour drive (and) all of the anxiety that came with having to plan such a big trip,” Gan said. “I think I did better here because I was already used to the environment.”

A few months earlier, she had traveled three hours to Palo Alto for her first SAT.

“It was very stressful,” Gan said. “We got to the hotel around 10 p.m. the night before and then at 4 a.m. I had to wake up and get ready to go to the SAT (site) which was around a 30-minute drive away.”

Arie Nootenboom, another Cosumnes Oaks senior, had a similar experience, traveling more than two hours to Chico.

“I had to wake up around between 3 and 4 a.m. because the test started at 8 a.m. and I really didn’t want to be late,” Nootenboom said. “I heard that there was someone at my test center who got turned away at the door because they were a few minutes late, and they had also driven several hours to get there.” 

As a response to COVID-19 in 2021, all colleges in the California State University system became test-blind – eliminating the SAT from admissions decisions. In 2023, the University of California system followed suit, announcing plans to create its own standardized test. In the meantime, SAT centers have closed rapidly. 

Northern California has felt this change. For the August test date, the Bay Area had 12 test centers open – a stark contrast to major metropolitan regions in other states such as Dallas, which had 70. Many students compare finding a test center to a lottery or a game, as the search can take hours.

“The day that they opened up registration for the new test, the nearest test center got completely filled up after a few minutes,” Nootenboom said. “It took a lot of refreshing the page and then setting the distance to further away and then refreshing it again until I could actually find a test center.”

The challenge has had, according to students, an effect on their results.

“(My experience) made me more nervous to take the test, and I think that’s why I didn’t do as well on my first try,” Gan said.

Rachel Baird, a Cosumnes Oaks English teacher, recognized the issue and took the initiative to help make her school a test center. 

“(In) California, because it’s test-blind now, there’s just less priority on schools offering the SAT,” Baird said. “And so any student who wants to go out of state or go to a private school, if they need to take the SAT because it’s required at more schools this year, there’s just less opportunities for them to do so … I wanted to make it as easy as possible for our students to find a spot.”

Despite this progress, some students feel it’s still not enough.

“There are a lot of people who want to take the test,” Nootenboom said. “At the test center I went to – like that was just at one school – there were not nearly enough seats at that test center at that time to be able to facilitate all of the students at that school, and (Cosumnes Oaks) is probably going to a be similar to that.”

Some students said they think school and testing officials are underestimating how many students want and need to take the exam.

“I think a lot more students are more ambitious than schools may be led to believe,” Gan said. “Even though many schools are now test optional, a lot of students still want to take the SAT or the ACT to improve their application.”

For Baird, the Cosuumnes Oaks English teacher, the burden has been misplaced on institutions like her school.

“I just think that College Board or schools that are requiring the SAT need to take a more active role in making it possible for California students to get spots,” she said. “Because right now, it’s completely dependent on (high) schools to figure it out.”