Aspire Lights a Fire

On Tuesday, April 1st, 2025, freshmen in Greenway had to take their first standardized test known as, “ACT Aspire.” The following days before this test, freshmen were asked what they’d think they were able to do. On the day of the test, freshmen were asked how they thought they were doing on past exams, and future exams. After the big day occurred, freshmen were asked how they thought they did on each individual test. 

Many freshmen had mixed feelings about the day before. One freshman said:

“I was feeling very stressed and felt under a lot of pressure because I thought the test would count as a grade for some reason.” Freshman Nathan Cruz said.

While another student said:

“I felt prepared for the test because I felt like I did enough studying for this day.” Freshman Jovan Gallant said.

On the day of the test, the only break that freshmen were allowed to take was a lunch break, which lasted 35 minutes. Freshmen were quickly able to express how they felt they were doing on past assessments and future assessments.

“I felt confident for my future tests I would take after lunch because I was just saying to myself that I was doing good and to keep going and that’s what got me through the rest of my tests.” Freshman Alejandro Morales Gregorio said.

“I felt that I was doing good and I just kept motivating myself to just finish each test.” Freshman Jimmy Tan said.

After the day of the test, few freshmen had to say this after the test:

“After the test, I had high hopes for when I get my results back which I don’t even know when were supposed to get them back, but I’m hopeful for amazing results on all the tests I took that day, since, I tried my hardest on all of them” Freshman Jude Avila said.

“After taking all those tests, I felt exhausted and just wanted the day to be over because I don’t think I’ve ever taken this many tests before in a single day” Jamie Quintero

All in all, even before the day of the test, kids at Greenway felt very differently on how they’d do. The day of the test, freshmen had differing opinions on how they felt they were doing on the tests they took before their break and how they felt about future tests. The days after the test, students felt diverse on how they felt they did on all the tests.