UBSCT has three parts — reading, writing and math — and you have to pass them all to get a basic diploma. If you don't pass but tried three times, you can get an alternative diploma. Do neither and you'll probably get a certificate of completion.

The exam is Utah's only high-stakes test. Your results will follow you for life. You have two more chances to take it: in October and again in February.

Schools hope you'll be prepared.

• The State Office of Education last May gave 10 school districts, including Box Elder, Jordan, Provo and San Juan, about $100,000 to figure out how best to help those of you who haven't passed yet. That could be as many as 17 to 26 percent or more of your some 36,000-student-strong class, according to state data and a Deseret Morning News analysis.

"We want to find best practices specific to UBSCT," said Brett Moulding, state director of curriculum and instruction. "We know best practices for remediation of students, but what we want to know is if there are some specific practices going on in districts that we can recommend to others to look at in terms of students passing that specific test."

You can view that two ways. On one hand, you guys, plus the few juniors who actually showed up this summer for assistance, are getting extra help. On the other, you're the lab rats in a study.

Murray School District is gathering results of the study and hopes to have some answers out this fall — maybe in time to help those of you still taking the test in February.

• The inability to tell lawmakers how many of you are failing might affect how much of a problem they see is out there, and how much money they hand out for tutoring, or other help to make sure you start getting higher math concepts as early as fourth grade.

Then again, it might not. Lawmakers a year ago knew thousands of you hadn't passed the exam. The State Board of Education asked for $6 million so schools could bring you up to speed. The Legislature didn't put up a penny for it.

"The funding is already there. It's called $2.7 billion dollars," Stephenson said, pointing to the Utah public schools budget. "If our school system can't teach basic skills with $2.7 billion, I don't know why we should provide $6 million in interventions for those who don't make it. They can do it already with (current) funding and should have the processes in place."

School chiefs swear they'll keep asking for more cash, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Patti Harrington said in a May e-mail to school leaders. They even wanted to break down test scores by ZIP code "so that each lawmaker can look at his/her own area and see how students are faring."