PSAT - at what score would you spend the $$ on an expensive prep course?

[SueTx]

I'm curious. How close to NM standing would ÿour student need to be in order for you to want to spend the money on a high dollar prep course? 10 points? 20 points? 30 points?

 

DD's scores improved 27 points from her freshman year to sophomore year. They would need to improve 27 more to make the cut off next year. I need to decide whether or not it may be worth it to spend the money on a prep course.

 

Thanks for your input,

Sue

[DebbS]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that only a few students that make the cutoff actually get the National Merit Scholarships. I'm not sure that a prep course would be worth it unless it would also improve her SAT/ACT scores.

 

That said, I'm :bigear:.

[Sebastian (a lady)]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that only a few students that make the cutoff actually get the National Merit Scholarships. I'm not sure that a prep course would be worth it unless it would also improve her SAT/ACT scores.

 

That said, I'm :bigear:.

 

The system may have changed, but in addition to the scholarships for the actual National Merit Scholarship winners, there were many colleges that offered automatic awards for finalists and semi-finalists. (Don't know how many of these offers have been wiped out by the economy and the drive to look at things other than merit in awarding money.)

 

Improvements on the PSAT would probably also reflect improvements in the SAT scores. Having said that, there are many low cost ways of practicing, from using test prep books (often available at the library) to reading and writing on higher levels to reading books like Kiss My Math that help to clarify math concepts.

 

Also, it depends on what you mean by big $$. For one family that might mean $100 and for another it might be $1,000 or more.

[debbiec]

Sue ~ DS improved by 37 points from 10th to 11th without doing anything to prepare at all. Just walked in cold turkey and took it. I think just the additional year of english and math made the difference for him.

[creekland]

We're not the type to ever spend high dollars for a prep course. My guy just looked at SAT/ACT study books and worked through those. Technically, he didn't really prep for the PSAT as much as he prepped for the ACT (took both last October). He did do the practice test in the PSAT booklet. Our school offered a Prep class after school that he could have taken for $15 (I think). We didn't bother with it.

 

In the end, what knocked him out was a technical issue. The proctor wrote the end time for the first math section on the board and he used his watch for the timing. However, his watch was behind the school clock by 5 minutes and there was no "end of time approaching" warning. He had 3 math questions left to do that he omitted. Had he gotten even one of those three correct he'd have been at PA's score for last year. Had he gotten 2 or 3 of them right he'd have been comfortably over. (He did miss two questions on his own in that section.) Then, it didn't help that it was a bad curve for math this year for the test as it was an easier than normal test. (See some threads on College Confidential about this, if curious.) So each one missed was worth significant points (sigh). His Reading and Writing scores couldn't bring up the math.

 

Such is life. Fortunately, he scored in the 99th percentile with the ACT taken that month, so he's set merit-aid wise. The PSAT is a nice kudo, but not the only way one can get decent merit aid.

 

My boys test better on the ACT (in general).

 

So, my recommendation is to do the math/English courses as planned and work through a decent prep book or two. Use practice tests in the book(s) to see what specific areas need to be worked on knowledge-wise and to get decent with the timing.

 

CHECK the watch/stopwatch or whatever one is planning to use for time to be sure it is calibrated correctly. (IF there's another time with my boys, I'm going to suggest they use their watches on stopwatch mode.)

 

AND, as I told middle son many times, do the work/problems FIRST, then go back to check them. He likes to pace himself and check along the way. It was a costly method this time.

[KAR120C]

...and generally I wouldn't.

 

Unless your kid has a particular difficulty with the format of the test, or if there's something specific on it that her curriculum hasn't covered that you can't teach yourself. Most of the kids I get called in for are in the latter group - having not covered all the math they need, or having a particular weakness in one area that needs some specific help.

 

Other than that, if it's just a general need to bring the score up a bit, most of the practice books are fine. The only thing a tutor or class gets you that the books don't is a schedule and accountability. If that's not a problem I'd go through the cheap way.

 

(My poor kid - in the tradition of the cobbler's barefoot children - is taking the ACT tomorrow with only what's on their website to prep. I actually have several practice tests on the shelf, but we've got a lot of more interesting stuff going on, and other than a quick run through a couple sections to remind him how the test works, he's not getting any particularly-directed prep at all!)