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PSAT and scholarship


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Hi All,

 

I am hoping someone can answer this question for me.

 

How often can you take the PSAT and qualify for the National Merit Scholarship? In other word, can you take the PSAT as a Sophomore and then again as a Junior and use the Junior year result for the Scholarship? Or can you take it only one time to be considered?

 

I hope this makes sense.

 

Thanks,

 

Susie

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Depending upon ethnic background, etc., when I read about the PSAT a year or 2 ago, there are also some other scholarships available. For example, for Hispanics. DD is Latina (born in Colombia and her mother is a Colombiana) and Hispanics are a group that had scholarships available, when I did that reading.  Those scholarships, as I recall, come from other groups/funding and not from NMS.

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Way back in the 1980's when I tested I remember a restriction on scholarship qualification base on only having taken the test junior year (perhaps on the grounds that repeat testing would give an advantage).

 

This isn't the case now.

 

Only the junior year test is used as a qualifying test sitting. Students can test earlier years.

 

Having said that College Board had rolled out new test specifically targeting younger high schoolers. So some high schools may not want to register non-juniors for the actual PSAT.

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Having said that College Board had rolled out new test specifically targeting younger high schoolers. So some high schools may not want to register non-juniors for the actual PSAT.

 

This is what I don't understand: why bother taking some pre-PSAT test? Why not just take the "real" PSAT as an 8th/9th/10th grader?

 

I'm having my 10th graders take the PSAT cold this year, just to see if/how much studying would make sense for next year, in 11th grade.  Is there any advantage whatsoever to taking a pre-PSAT?

 

I can imagine the CB just wants to make more $ off more tests. However, I doubt they're admitting that. They must be claiming there is some advantage to these pre-PSATs, positioning the pre-PSATs as somehow useful to students. Any idea what the company line is?

 

(I know schools may not allow non-11th graders to take the real PSAT. My question is: Why would a student bother, other than for practice w/ standardized testing?  Hm. Maybe the CB's end game is to restrict the PSAT to ONLY 11th graders.... What a game.)

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This is what I don't understand: why bother taking some pre-PSAT test? Why not just take the "real" PSAT as an 8th/9th/10th grader?

 

I'm having my 10th graders take the PSAT cold this year, just to see if/how much studying would make sense for next year, in 11th grade.  Is there any advantage whatsoever to taking a pre-PSAT?

 

I can imagine the CB just wants to make more $ off more tests. However, I doubt they're admitting that. They must be claiming there is some advantage to these pre-PSATs, positioning the pre-PSATs as somehow useful to students. Any idea what the company line is?

 

(I know schools may not allow non-11th graders to take the real PSAT. My question is: Why would a student bother, other than for practice w/ standardized testing?  Hm. Maybe the CB's end game is to restrict the PSAT to ONLY 11th graders.... What a game.)

 

I agree -- it seems silly for students to take anything other than the actual PSAT for practice or to get a baseline score.  On the other hand, I don't see many schools locally offering the alternative PSAT formats here.  Some private schools are offering the option to their students, but I don't see many public schools doing it.  Maybe it's just too new yet.  It will be interesting to see how this develops and how many students actually end up taking the new tests.

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Right now it looks like 10th graders can still take the PSAT in fall if they want to and school has room.   The new test PSAT10 is a spring test (and supposed to be the same material as the regular one in fall).  It is a practice test only as far as I can tell.  and, no, if an 11th grader takes PSAT10 it is not part of NM qualifying.  But it could be a nice way to test in spring for practice for either the 11th grade fall, or for SAT.    Depending on the cost, it could benefit someone who wanted real test conditions without it being a "bad score" on real thing.  They might learn more in math from Fall of 10th to Spring of 10th and therefore be more ready for the fall??  It would depend on cost if that is worth it or not.   Spring vs Fall.    I can't really see other reasons to take PSAT before 11th other than practice.

 

The PSAT8/9 seems like the old style Plan and Explore from ACT.  not sure on that.

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I think the additional testing instruments (PSAT 10 and the other new tests) benefit College Board by setting them up as providing a continuum of college prep testing through the middle school and high school years.  ACT has gotten into many states as the testing used in high school state wide.  Here in Hawaii, just about every student takes the ACT in school as part of the school day.  I think it may even be paid for out of the school budget.  For many students, they may not ever sit for one of the SAT/ACT exams offered outside of school hours.  Part of why ACT has this market is because they have tests that are tailored to the levels for younger students.  I think CB would like more of this market for themselves.  [i added up what I could and figured out that we have or will pay at least $647 to College Board for testing and score reports for my oldest son.  I will have a higher amount to pay for my middle son, because more of his potential schools want to see Subject Test scores - thus more reports, and because he will have at least one more AP exam - at $91 each.  Actually, I just realized that I forgot to add the cost of the PSAT tests they've taken.  That is another $15-18 each per test.  I think I'm approaching $1500 in testing fees -- just to College Board/ETS; ACT is separate.]

 

Having multiple tests may make some sense if it gets more students taking the exam, which broadens the pool of testing students, enabling them to be more accurate about where a student falls relative to their peers.  If only college bound or well-prepped 10th graders take the test, then their curve will be skewed.  And if you compare a 10th grader to the larger pool of 11th graders, their score may seem lower than it would be if compared to only 10th graders.

 

CB has also changed the scale on each of their exams.  So PSAT won't go up to 80 on each section anymore.  And I think the PSAT 10 will have a top score that is lower than the top PSAT score.  I've really not followed the rational for this.  Maybe the idea is that if the student took the PSAT and the SAT at the same time, the scores would be similar?  (With the idea that there is usually an improvement from fall PSAT to spring SAT just due to learning more over 4-6 months?  One site I looked at said that the difference in scale is because the SAT is a harder test than the PSAT (I suppose this implies that a student taking the PSAT and SAT at the same time would have a lower score on the SAT, rather than a PSAT 70 becoming an SAT 700).

 

One other reason to have multiple test instruments is to not scare some students with a test that has lots of questions they cannot answer.

 

 

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