PSAT questions

[Ame E.]

If you homeschool, how do you sign up for the PSAT?

 

Also are the prep classes worth the money?

 

Ame

[CO MOM]

You sign up through a local public or private high school that will allow your student to take the test with their students. It is often recommended to contact them before school starts, as early as now, but our local school told us to call back in September. It probably also depends on how familiar the school is with dealing with homeschoolers. Ours was friendly enough, but kept forgetting to let us know things, so we had to stay in communication with them. Even so, my dd almost missed the test as they changed the location and forgot to tell us! Was kind of glad that we didn't have to go through them for the ACT/SAT!

 

Can't comment on the prep classes - we just had a book and reviewed math with Chalkdust SAT prep (part).

[Pamela H in Texas]

Our schools often said to contact them in September for the Oct tests (PLAN and PSAT).

 

I can't tell you anything about prep programs though as we didn't go that route.

[home2333]

My son took the PSAT at a private school in our area. He also took some prep classes that the school had--two two or three hour sessions. They were beneficial because the school's philosophy is that taking the PSAT is preparation for the SAT. The classes got him thinking ahead. I also recommend the Chalk Dust SAT Math DVDs.

 

Grace

[K-FL]

Our hs said the same, contact us when school starts in the fall. Here they only order x amount so it's first come, first served.

 

As to prep, our library has "The New SAT math" prep dvd so I'm getting it for dd#2 to look over.

[ValRN]

do students take the PSAT? Should I be planning this for my soon-to-be 9th grader? Sorry to hijack.

Val (not OP)

[AngieW in Texas]

I called in May to see what I needed to do to sign up my dd. The school told me to call back in early September. My district has all the hsers in the district go to the same school for testing and puts them all in the same room (although there are ps kids in the room too). They didn't give me any problems at all. I think it cost $25 to sign her up. I made sure to give her the homeschool code in case the proctor didn't know it. I dropped her off at 8am and picked her up some time before noon. It wasn't a big deal at all. The test results were sent to my house.

[coopers5]

I recommend not taking it in 9th grade, but taking it as practice in 10th - when most serious students have had a better/larger dose of enough math to get something out of it and not be too discouraged.

 

Then in 11th you take it for the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying. That is the year it counts. 11th. I recommend prepping by:

mainly taking rigorous courses through high school and not "fudging" - i.e. correct math problems all year, find out why mistakes are made, be disciplined about it; read, read, read. The student should read literature that challenges him and should read and analyze lots of it.

The other way we've prepped (and done AMAZINGLY well) is using some of the SAT prep books. Don't send a kid ever into a testing situation without having him first having a grasp of what the test will be like, what kinds of sections it will have and special challenges it will have. He/she should also practice taking sections - either in parts, and/or sitting for a whole entire (all sections) SAT as practice.

He should try to have it set up just as if it were a real test situation.

Doing this over and over helps, I believe, before they sit for a real test that counts.

He should study the books - reading through them for tips and strategy issues - then use practice tests that most of the prep books have.

HTH!

JC