Score feedback

[choirfarm]

I had my 9th grader take a practice PSAT on Friday and the results surprised me. He made a 62 on the reading section, which I was completely thrilled with since he is a math/science guy. Well, I say that, but his scores were actually pretty even on the ACT when he took it for Duke in 7th grade.

 

His writing was 52, which I was a little disappointed in. He is currently doing Analytical grammar, and we just finished Season I. I'm thinking season 2 and 3 will help him with this? Anything else we should do to up his score?

 

His math was 58. He is doing Geometry now. I will have him do the SAT review course as well. By the time he takes it for real, he will have finished through Algebra II and started trig.

 

So he got a total of 172. He needs at least a 200 to be considered even a commended student. Will he improve that much by then??

 

Also, have the scores gone up? I was a commended student back when there were only 2 sections. I made a 1220 on the SAT which was around what my PSAT score was. Now, that seems to be considered a wimpy score. My dh made 1000 or something and yet graduated #4 in his medical school class. We talk a lot about how he might not be able to be admitted to Baylor now with the test scores he had then.

 

Christine

[Nan in Mass]

So it doesn't seem to me that the scores have gone up, but it might just be these particular children? I don't know. One was public schooled and a more hands-on type person, and the other homeschooled but doesn't test well due to brain wiring (works particularly slowly and misreads things - we were grateful he scored as high as he did). They both are at a hands-on state college where their mediocre scores were in line with the others, and are discovering that they seem to be among the brighter students. That still doesn't mean they are getting A's. This doesn't surprise us because the public schooled one hates academics and the homeschooled one isn't good at them, so they both struggle. I will be interested to see how the youngest's PSAT scores come out. He doesn't struggle with academics. He doesn't like them, but he has an easier time with them than both the older ones. At a guess, I'd say his have the potential to be more like my husband's and mine. They may still be lower, though, because I may not have done as good a job as our school on the math (distinct possibility), and we haven't worked much on reading comprehension so the whole concept of spitting back an answer that was stated in the text is taking some getting used to. We'll see. As I said, it will be interesting to see what happens. Lots of people seem to be getting 800s on the SATs these days. I would like to see the statistics for our local public school. But one of our friends got 800s, so it wasn't unheard of even when we were in school. None of this is very helpful, probably.

-Nan

[readwithem]

So he got a total of 172. He needs at least a 200 to be considered even a commended student. Will he improve that much by then??

 

 

 

My dd's PSAT score improved 30 points from soph to junior year.

[Nan in Mass]

My score improved, but I can't remember how much. My husband's did, also. We were both told it wouldn't but it went up every time we took both the SATs and the PSATs. My sons' did, too.

[Gwen in VA]

Has your ds actually studied all the math that is on the PSAT? (algebra 1 and geometry)? If he has not fully studied all of the subject material that is covered on the PSAT math section, I would expect he math score to go up considerably.

 

Two other thoughts --

 

1) My kids always found the practice books to be harder than the real test -- true for the SAT, PSAT, SAT2, and AP exams. Basically, the exam books are trying to persuade you that your child needs help, so the tests can be more difficult that the real thing! (If he was taking an old College Board PSAT test, ignore this comment.)

 

2) Kids mature a lot. Your son won't take the PSAT "for real" for nearly two years. Between now and then he will read many many books. He will do many many math problems. He will write many many essays. His brain will mature. He will develop better test-taking skills. And you will probably have him do some "prep work" to help his score.

 

I think that a 9th grader's PSAT score will jump considerably between now and when he takes the exam for real.

[Brenda in MA]

so you can't directly compare your scores with those of your children.

 

The wikipedia article has some details about the changes in the SAT over the years, and the college board site has a table comparing the new vs. old scores.

 

HTH,

Brenda

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAT#1994_changes

(see section 7 on recentered scores)

 

http://professionals.collegeboard.com/data-reports-research/sat/equivalence-tables/sat-score

[Musicmom]

Has your ds actually studied all the math that is on the PSAT? (algebra 1 and geometry)? If he has not fully studied all of the subject material that is covered on the PSAT math section, I would expect he math score to go up considerably.

 

Two other thoughts --

 

1) My kids always found the practice books to be harder than the real test -- true for the SAT, PSAT, SAT2, and AP exams. Basically, the exam books are trying to persuade you that your child needs help, so the tests can be more difficult that the real thing! (If he was taking an old College Board PSAT test, ignore this comment.)

 

2) Kids mature a lot. Your son won't take the PSAT "for real" for nearly two years. Between now and then he will read many many books. He will do many many math problems. He will write many many essays. His brain will mature. He will develop better test-taking skills. And you will probably have him do some "prep work" to help his score.

 

I think that a 9th grader's PSAT score will jump considerably between now and when he takes the exam for real.

 

:iagree:His scores (and these are good for 9th grade) are very likely to be much higher by the time he takes the test in 11th. It was true of my ds. There was a huge jump from his first practice test in early 10th grade to his actual score in 11th.

 

Sometime this year you may wish to pick up the McGraw-Hill PSAT prep book. It has great advice for what to do long term (vocab development and critical reading) to prepare for the test, and we found the test prep in it to be very good--went through it in-depth over 6 weeks before taking the test in 10th grade; reviewed it in 11th.