Rather than paying $64.50 and spending part of a Saturday taking a high-stakes test, juniors will take the SAT for free on March 27.

“It affects us a lot because the SAT is one of the major things that colleges look for,” junior Jason Echeverria said. “I feel that having the opportunity to take the test for free and do very well on it is great.”

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) has partnered with the College Board to bring the SAT to juniors for free. This day is known as “SAT School Day.” If students are not satisfied with their score, they can still take the exam additional times but it has to be outside of school.

“I think it’s great because you don’t have to sign up,”  junior Mariana Herrera said. “You’re kind of obligated to do it so it prevents procrastination.”

The first time this was done was last year on March 7 where students in Local District South took the test for free. This included 29 schools and roughly 4,000 students. Unfortunately, this did not extend to Daniel Pearl Magnet High School’s class of 2019.

“Whether you are on the free or reduced plan, it doesn’t matter,” counselor Martina Torres said. “You’re going to have the SAT paid for.”

LAUSD worked on providing the free SAT test with the intention of helping students “raise their expectations for taking the SAT” and inspiring “students to improve upon their academic strengths and weaknesses,” as said in a released statement.