This paper presents and discusses parts of a large-scale [1] ethnographical and longitudinal study that has followed the process of implementing the National Test in Mathematics for third graders (Ntm3) in Sweden during its first three years (2010, 2011, and 2012). Pupil talk from 2011 about pressure and what is at stake was used to construe three positions of need that might characterize pupils during the National Test in Mathematics in their third school year: the position of shame, the position of unfamiliarity, and the position of stress. How these might be handled in educational practices is discussed briefly.