This article presents extracts from interviews with 14 teachers of English. It indicates some of the tensions which result for such teachers from having to prepare Year 9 students for the "national" tests in English toward the end of Key Stage 3. These are high-stakes tests: they supply the means to compile school "league tables" and the material by which authorities judge whether schools, departments and individual teachers have met given targets. For teachers, readying students for Standard Assessment Tasks (SATs) can entail confronting in a sustained way the extent and depth of the loss of professional autonomy. Teachers speak of the costs of complying with and adapting to the requirement while attempting to maintain their convictions.