Hillary in KS Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 I seem to remember some discussion on this last year, but can't find the thread. I remember some people saying that homeschoolers' scores are compared to each other (in the region), whereas using the public school's score would compare my ds to others in that school. (Meaning, colleges might look more favorably upon a good score among the psers vs. a good score amongst homeschoolers.) Is that true? It may be beneficial to do this, because our local public schools aren't...great. Has anyone spoken to college admissions officers about this? Or maybe have some personal experience? Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moki4 Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 Is this possibly true for SAT 2 tests? We are facing our first (dd) test taker for SAT 2 and AP. Dd will do PSAT next yr (sophomore) Bumping this for BTDT! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muttichen Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 PSAT scores are not reported to colleges. They are used for the National Merit program and all students in a state are compared. They don't distinguish between homeschool and public school kids. They look at the scores in each state and figure out the selection index (sum of reading, writing, and math scores) they need to get the right percentage of semifinalists. If your child participates in the student search service, colleges get something about their performance, but it's for marketing purposes. Even students with mediocre scores get tons of junkmail this way, so I don't think it really means anything. You need to use the homeschool code so the scores will come to you and not to the school. The public school kids don't get their scores in the mail -- they are handed out at school. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillary in KS Posted September 18, 2011 Author Share Posted September 18, 2011 PSAT scores are not reported to colleges. They are used for the National Merit program and all students in a state are compared. They don't distinguish between homeschool and public school kids. They look at the scores in each state and figure out the selection index (sum of reading, writing, and math scores) they need to get the right percentage of semifinalists. If your child participates in the student search service, colleges get something about their performance, but it's for marketing purposes. Even students with mediocre scores get tons of junkmail this way, so I don't think it really means anything. You need to use the homeschool code so the scores will come to you and not to the school. The public school kids don't get their scores in the mail -- they are handed out at school. I understand about how National Merit works, and the method of receipt of the results. DS took the PSAT as a freshman last year (homeschool code) and we've been getting a LOT of mail from colleges. He'd scored pretty well, so I assumed that his scores was high enough that colleges were interested enough to send mail. (Though they're probably ALWAYS interested enough to send mail. LOL! :lol:) But if colleges aren't given an indication of how well the students do, then there's no worries about which code to use. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillary in KS Posted September 18, 2011 Author Share Posted September 18, 2011 The colleges buy lists of kids that scored within certain parameters. So they won't know that your kid got a 70 but they WILL buy a list of kids that scored between 65 to 75. Oh! OK. That makes sense. So it doesn't matter in which comparison pool I place him, his scores will be his scores. Thanks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Running the race Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 Is there just one homeschool code to use? If so, what is it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillary in KS Posted September 18, 2011 Author Share Posted September 18, 2011 There are a bunch. You can find them on the PSAT website. http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/psat/reg/homeschool/state-codes.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 But if colleges aren't given an indication of how well the students do, then there's no worries about which code to use. Not true. If you use the school's code, the results will go to the school and then you may never see them again. This happened to my oldest. She knew to use the homeschool code, but whoever double checked the forms noticed and erased it, adding the school code in its place. I'm sure the person thought she made a mistake because the homeschool code sort of looks like a made-up code, but it caused us much hassle. It took weeks to get the school to return a call. Then it took a few more weeks to find the score report. Then even longer to finally have it sent to us. Results usually come out around the first week of December and she didn't get her score report until the end of March. What a pain! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Running the race Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 There are a bunch. You can find them on the PSAT website. http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/psat/reg/homeschool/state-codes.html Thank you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillary in KS Posted September 18, 2011 Author Share Posted September 18, 2011 Not true. If you use the school's code, the results will go to the school and then you may never see them again. This happened to my oldest. She knew to use the homeschool code, but whoever double checked the forms noticed and erased it, adding the school code in its place. I'm sure the person thought she made a mistake because the homeschool code sort of looks like a made-up code, but it caused us much hassle. It took weeks to get the school to return a call. Then it took a few more weeks to find the score report. Then even longer to finally have it sent to us. Results usually come out around the first week of December and she didn't get her score report until the end of March. What a pain! I'm sorry. I was unclear. I meant that it didn't matter which code I used for the sake of the comparison of scores. (My original question.) We used the homeschool code last year and scores were sent directly to us. We're on very good terms with the ps registar (small town), and if it was necessary to use the ps code I'm not worried about him losing our score or not returning calls. I'm comfortable with either option. I did want to know if the student scores were compared to each other, though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barb_ Posted September 18, 2011 Share Posted September 18, 2011 I'm sorry. I was unclear. I meant that it didn't matter which code I used for the sake of the comparison of scores. (My original question.) We used the homeschool code last year and scores were sent directly to us. We're on very good terms with the ps registar (small town), and if it was necessary to use the ps code I'm not worried about him losing our score or not returning calls. I'm comfortable with either option. I did want to know if the student scores were compared to each other, though. Duh-oh :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hillary in KS Posted September 18, 2011 Author Share Posted September 18, 2011 Duh-oh :D :lol: That made me laugh! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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