Congratulations to you all! Such a happy day! Jan

My dds graduated with 47 and 65 college credits respectively. It involved a bit of homework, knowing which of their target universities accepted which credits from the CC, which AP exams and which CLEP exams. It was all worth it. My older dd completed her master's degree after 4 years and my younger dd will complete her bachelor's degree this December after 5 semesters at the university. (She'll then continue on for her master's.)

DD got both envelopes yesterday (Thursday). Finalist!

I'm coming in late but I'm praying. Jan

Some years back we got my freshman's scores and then it took almost another whole week before my junior's scores arrived. I called the College Board at some point during that waiting period and the person there said that they got mailed out in batches (with no significance to the batches in terms of high/low score, grade level, etc.) Jan

IMPORTANT! about the qualifying scores: That list is the qualifying scores for the students that took the PSAT in October 2008, got their NM semi-finalist notifications this past fall and will graduate from high school this coming May/June. They do not apply with absolute certainty to those that are getting their scores right now. The qualifying scores may go down, they may stay the same or they may go up --- on a state-by-state basis. Use that list as a sort of ballpark of where your state's cutoff will land this coming fall. I've been following this process and the associated cutoffs for years. They may go up by as much as 3 points. Or they may go down. Unless your student scored *significantly* above the listed cutoff you will not know for certain whether your junior made the cutoff until next fall (think last August/early September). HTH, Jan

A large percentage of the semi-finalists move on to finalist. Out of 16,000 semifinalists there will be 15,000 that become finalists. To move from semi-finalist to finalist you have to get a qualifying SAT score (said to be 2000 or higher), have a good recommendation letter from the guidance counselor (non-familial adult teacher/leader type person for homeschoolers), complete the lengthy application on time, write an essay, etc. The advancement from semi-finalist to finalist is not based on the PSAT score. Slightly more than half of the finalists will be awarded scholarship money (and thus become a National Merit Scholar) from either their college of choice, a corporation or the National Merit Corporation itself. Jan

Thanks! I'm printing this to make soon. Did you have any problem with the results turning out dry? Some of the people that left comments added a banana to keep it from being crumbly and dry. Jan

Wait. PW is going to be in St. Louis???? How did I miss that??? I'll have to check out where that is going to be. However, like you, Chelle, I don't go downtown for much of any reason if I can help it. Jan

My dd is a Dickens nut. She has acquired many nice hardbound copies of his books. We found a beautiful copy of Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov at Goodwill yesterday. She and her sister have both read that book and loved it. She recently received Little Dorrit as a belated birthday present. She hasn't been reading anything lately because the Bible Bee was consuming all her free time through 9/12. Now she's beginning to get back into the flow of her normal life; she'll be picking up a good book really soon. :)

Nope. National Merit Corporation will only see the scores from the 11th grade exam sitting. Even most public and private schools have at least their 10th graders take the PSAT for practice. At least that is true for the schools around here.

Everyone seems to have a different opinon on this topic and it really comes down to knowing your student. I started both of my girls taking the PSAT as 9th graders. Familiarity with the actual exam in the actual timed setting was very valuable. Both of my daughters have advanced on to National Merit semi-finalists by the time they took it as 11th graders. Do what is right and best for your students. ***Edit to say that it is ONLY the 11th grade sitting for the exam that has the potential for qualifying the student for National Merit recognition. All previous years would only be for practice.

I didn't see this one in person but it did make my dd and me groan. http://failblog.org/2009/07/24/educational-software-ad-fail/

nt

I make this recipe frequently. http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Red-Lentil-Curry/Detail.aspx Jan