PSAT feedback/suggestions

[hsbeth]

We got our oldest dd's scores in today. She's a ninth grader and we just wanted her to take the test for practice. As expected, she did quite well on the math section and decently on writing. I was disappointed in her results on the critical reading section though and was hoping for some feedback and suggestions.

 

Her CR score was 44. She got more than half of the vocabulary questions correct (we're using Word w/in a word at home with good results). She also got 4/7 of the literary elements correct. We are using Figuratively speaking this year and some progeny press guides for lit. She got 5/10 of the "Reasoning and Inference" ones.

 

Her trouble spots seemed to be with "Author's Craft:Style, Tone, and Technique" (2/8 correct) and "Organization and Ideas" (2/7 correct).

 

Any suggestions as to materials or things that we could try to enhance her scores in these areas?

 

TIA

[Michelle in AL]

There is a book at amazon call Voice Lessons: It covers tone, voice and syntax. The most valuable practice is reading a variety of literature, the gothic/victorian era is especially helpful since it uses lots of literary devices, descriptive language and requires some vocabulary skills to discern meaning of words no longer used.

 

Reading nonfiction helps too.

[Teachin'Mine]

Honestly what will probably help the most is being two years older when the test counts. ;) I thoroughly understand wanting to do something to help now, but time is the biggest benefit as there's tremendous maturing in the thinking between now and 11th grade.

[MomsintheGarden]

Honestly what will probably help the most is being two years older when the test counts. ;) I thoroughly understand wanting to do something to help now' date=' but time is the biggest benefit as there's tremendous maturing in the thinking between now and 11th grade.[/quote']:iagree:

In addition to a couple of year's more maturity, I recommend a WTM-style Great Books reading program. If your dd reads, discusses, and write papers about the classics, she will find it much easier to read critically.

 

Is your dd signed up for the College Board's free SAT question of the day? I recommend that she does this faithfully. A few months before the PSAT test day in her junior year you might want to have her intensively study for the test using a resource such as the McGraw-Hill prep guide.

 

Beyond that, we've found certain AP English prep materials helpful for critical reading, especially the Cliff's and Barron's books.

 

Personally, I would do only the GB program right now. Enjoy high school and try not to stress about a test that only counts two years from now.

 

Blessings,

GardenMom

[plansrme]

http://www.amazon.com/Parents-Love-Reading-Kids-Dont/dp/0517591642

 

If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, Parents Who Love Reading, Kids Who Don't, I think you might find it inspiring. I know I should duck and cover when I mention it on this board, especially after a Great Books recommendation, but the author gives several examples of students who dramatically increased their SAT CR scores just by dramatically increasing the volume (not the quality) of their reading. One of the students profiled bombed the SAT and then started a reading program comprised almost exclusively of large quantities of historical romances.

 

I am a book snob, absolutely, but after reading this, I lightened up on the twaddle issue with my kids. It is a lot easier to get a girl to read 4 hours of twaddle than even an hour of one of the Great Books.

 

Not everyone is going to agree with the author, and I may not totally agree, either, but I like to throw her book out from time to time for the sake of having all of the options.

 

Terri

[MomsintheGarden]

If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, Parents Who Love Reading, Kids Who Don't, I think you might find it inspiring. I know I should duck and cover when I mention it on this board, especially after a Great Books recommendation, but the author gives several examples of students who dramatically increased their SAT CR scores just by dramatically increasing the volume (not the quality) of their reading. One of the students profiled bombed the SAT and then started a reading program comprised almost exclusively of large quantities of historical romances.

Interesting - I'll have to check out that book. Perhaps it will make me feel better about allowing my younger children to read Hank the Cowdog and Calvin and Hobbes so much.

 

I still like the GB, but no bashing from me!

 

GardenMom

[Tullia]

This information may be somewhat out of date; my son is in college now. His scores on the CR section of the PSAT were his best, and he did well in similar sections of the SAT and ACT later on. First, I will agree with a previous poster that maturity and having a chance to cover more material will make a huge difference.

 

About specific materials, I have always been a fan of the Classical Writing series because it pulls in so many different aspects of language arts, and I like the way they take literature apart and then put it back together. I was even more impressed with CW after my son's first try at the ACT when I spent extra for a detailed score analysis. That analysis gave me a lot of feedback on where we needed to focus the bulk of our work. (In my son's case it was math, though.) However, using something like CW might require a major change of direction or time investment that might not work for you.

 

Another language resource I like is a deceptively simple worktext focusing on the sentence style of classic English authors. It is available free of charge through the author's website, and can be done in a semester or less. It is an analysis of sentences at the phrase and clause level, with one goal of increasing structural awareness. I've had good feedback from all the students who used this in my co-op class. One of the most useful ideas I gleaned from corresponding with Professor Einarsson was a focus on building what he calls structural awareness. You start the process with phonics, spelling rules, and basic grammar and move from there into the canons of rhetoric, especially style. So, when choosing curricula one thing I always looked at was how well a particular program addressed that aspect of language and literature study.

 

http://www.classiclanguagearts.net/workbook.htm

 

HTH,

Martha

 

PS I guess after having had a couple of years now to look back on the process I'd say that reading lots of Hank the Cowdog did not ruin my son's capacity to enjoy great books, and the fact that his first reading of The Odyssey (during high school) was somewhat superficial didn't seem to hinder him when he re-read it last summer in an honors seminar. The fact that he was familiar with the basic structure from having read it once and also having used the material for Classical Writing assignments allowed him to focus on a more mature analysis of the work as a college student. He shared his instructor's comments on his writing for the seminar; she was favorably impressed with his work.

[jld]

Interesting - I'll have to check out that book. Perhaps it will make me feel better about allowing my younger children to read Hank the Cowdog and Calvin and Hobbes so much.

 

GardenMom

 

Ds11 loves, loves, loves comic books. I totally understand where you're coming from!

 

But after doing some intense thinking the last few days after reading on the expectations thread, I'm considering just working with ds11's interest in comic books instead of always trying to thwart it. There's a book out by the creator of Maus on the history of comic books, and I may get it for ds11, guilt-free!:D

 

And MomsintheGarden, as always, thanks for your advice on tests, and homeschooling high school in general!:)

[jld]

the author gives several examples of students who dramatically increased their SAT CR scores just by dramatically increasing the volume (not the quality) of their reading.

Terri

 

You know, I know I read about this idea in one of Jim Trelease's editions of the Read-Aloud Handbook, but I have combed through them since and can't find it. This is such an intriguing idea to me, that just reading, reading, reading, without worrying, worrying, worrying can produce such great results. Thank you so much for sharing this book with us!:)

[Nan in Mass]

Unfortunately, reading tons of Calvin and Hobbs (and other comics) did absolutely nothing to raise my sons' PSAT scores. Maturity (and continuing to do great books) raised one's, but not very much. The other one's PSAT reading/writing score rose more than 20 points this year and I attribute it to doing a French middleschool language arts textbook. We did it excedingly badly, but that didn't prevent him from learning to recognize tone and having to answer a bunch of questions about inferences and things. He had to do it in a foreign language, so he had to work particularly hard at it, but I don't think it was that. The French seem to be very, very mechanical about this, which happened to suit my engineering son. They make the students count how many words are of this type or that type in order to figure these things out. He never had a problem understanding great books, but when it comes to trying to get all the meaning out of a short passage taken out of context, he struggled. This helped him to figure out how to do this.

-Nan

[MomsintheGarden]

Ds11 loves, loves, loves comic books. I totally understand where you're coming from!

 

But after doing some intense thinking the last few days after reading on the expectations thread, I'm considering just working with ds11's interest in comic books instead of always trying to thwart it. There's a book out by the creator of Maus on the history of comic books, and I may get it for ds11, guilt-free!:D

 

And MomsintheGarden, as always, thanks for your advice on tests, and homeschooling high school in general!:)

You are so sweet, especially since I've been too busy (and chicken) to participate in your extremely interesting threads. Way to go, jld!

 

I'll have to check out the Maus book - never heard of that one.

 

Blessings,

Mom

[MomsintheGarden]

http://www.classiclanguagearts.net/workbook.htm

 

HTH,

Martha

 

This looks very cool, and free, too! Thanks so much!

 

GardenMom

[hsbeth]

Thanks for all your suggestions and support. I appreciate it. Off to check out some of those materials.

[Storm Bay]

http://www.amazon.com/Parents-Love-Reading-Kids-Dont/dp/0517591642

 

If you can get your hands on a copy of this book, Parents Who Love Reading, Kids Who Don't, I think you might find it inspiring. I know I should duck and cover when I mention it on this board, especially after a Great Books recommendation, but the author gives several examples of students who dramatically increased their SAT CR scores just by dramatically increasing the volume (not the quality) of their reading. One of the students profiled bombed the SAT and then started a reading program comprised almost exclusively of large quantities of historical romances.

 

I am a book snob, absolutely, but after reading this, I lightened up on the twaddle issue with my kids. It is a lot easier to get a girl to read 4 hours of twaddle than even an hour of one of the Great Books.

 

Not everyone is going to agree with the author, and I may not totally agree, either, but I like to throw her book out from time to time for the sake of having all of the options.

 

Terri

 

Thanks! Not only do I tend to be a book snob, but when my dd was still homeschooling, she got no work done if she had a novel. Now that she's in ps, it's time to lighten up because she is good about getting her homework done.

 

This information may be somewhat out of date; my son is in college now. His scores on the CR section of the PSAT were his best, and he did well in similar sections of the SAT and ACT later on. First, I will agree with a previous poster that maturity and having a chance to cover more material will make a huge difference.

 

 

http://www.classiclanguagearts.net/workbook.htm

 

HTH,

Martha

 

 

 

Thanks, I'll look this up, too.

Edited December 15, 2010 by Karin