By: Abigail Jimenez, Angela Acosta, & Anabel Ocampo

Animo Pat Brown is known for having a good amount of students getting accepted to college, but how well are we prepared? There are many methods that teachers provide to help pass the tests such as the SAT, but are they actually working? These questions rise up more questions on the preparation of college at APB. We specifically asked the seniors if SAT prep helped them prepare for college.

“SAT prep is not helping seniors because we don’t practice it too often, so therefore it’s not effective” said Senior Ricardo Galindo. However, with Senior, Nayeli Ocegueda, said, “Yes because the SAT prep gives you problems that you will have in college.” Junior, Braulio Negrete, also said, “Yes because you get the help you need, same effect it would have as guided study.”

We asked chemistry teacher, Ms. Roselman, she said, “I think guided study is a place for tutoring and more one on one practice with the teacher which is very helpful.” She also spoke about College Spring stating, “It’s your first time getting practice with the SAT and it’s better than going into the SAT with no experience.”

However, no matter how much dedication the staff here at APB puts into the student’s education, there are some students who are just simply not interested. The graduation rate here at Animo Pat Brown is 97.93% while the remaining are dropouts are only  2.1%. What do you think happens to these teens if they are no longer in school? Studies show that young teens that are more likely to dropout come from low income families and they drop out  in order to contribute to their family’s income.

According to school rankings, APB has scored higher in Mathematics and English, compared to other school districts in the state.

We asked the principal,what he thought about how prepared the students are for college. “It depends, different colleges have different expectations. I always tell student to shoot for A’s and B’s, the higher your grades the more options you will have for applying for colleges. So UC is a higher expectation but A’s and B’s are a good place to aim for anyone. We’re looking if kids make it through their first year of college, that is very important because a lot happens on the first year like transitioning. If you make it through the first year that is usually a good sign that you’ll make it throughout. We see that the majority of kids are making it. We do usually see about a 99% on graduation. We have a high percentage of student that are on track, we have almost all of the 12th graders, then we see more kids in 10th and 11th grade who are further behind. Mr. Snyder sent a survey out to every kid that has ever graduated from APB. He is trying to collect data on how many kids graduated from college and have a job,” said Mr. Reed.

Overall,  APB is doing a great job of preparing its students to achieve their dream goals and to strive for a better future. The SAT proves that APB is filled with students who are determined to have a successful future and continue to have to reach the top.