What do we do with PSAT scores?

[sixglides]

DD did great on reading / writing, not great in math. She tested this year as a junior & last year as a sophomore. We were warned on the forum, that scores could actually go down...and hers did. Percentile ranking stayed the same.

 

How can we use this info to choose SAT vs. ACT, and then, what prep do you use for SAT?

[Jen in NY]

I am not sure about the ACT vs. SAT. Actually, I've never even looked at an ACT, but your post is reminding me that I should have a look for dd#2. Thanks!

 

Around here, the best SAT prep has been working slowly and carefully though the "Blue Book." DD#1 would take a timed portion of the test and then look at every single question she missed, considering each answer and explaining (to herself) why the wrong ones were wrong and the right one was right. It was time consuming but extremely beneficial.

 

BTW, my kids absolutely love math and are "ahead" and yet their preparation was insufficient to ace the SAT. There is something unique about the type pf problems on that exam and the only surefire way to conquer is to get familiar with the practice tests. At least that's my dd#1's theory. I'm sure there are others. :)

 

She also looked at these two books and recommends them highly, especially the math one:

http://www.amazon.co...rds=pwn the sat

 

http://www.amazon.co...pd_bxgy_b_img_y

 

The best school of thought I have heard about the essay section is to know a lot about one or two things that really interest you .... like a specific person or group (my dd's was NASA) so that you could apply specific detail to almost any of the essay questions that might pop up.

 

Best ot luck! We are right in the thick of it again with dd#2. She's a sophomore, and my plan is to have her prep like crazy for the SAT to be ready for next fall, take the PSAT in Oct and the SAT in Nov and hopefully call it done. With dd#1 she waited until March to take her first SAT. It didn't occur to me that the perfect time to get it out of the way would have been right after the PSAT, since she would have been all set with the math concepts at that time. Duh. Lesson learned! Another example of why being the second kid ain't so bad! You can see what worked for your older sib and throw out the rest. :)

[creekland]

We had my guys take the PSAT and ACT (both tests) in Oct in order to be able to compare which test they might do better on or prefer. My older boys did better on the ACT, so concentrated on that one afterward and did well. My youngest is absolutely equal, so as soon as our school releases the PSAT results (so he knows them), we'll have a talk about which test he likes better. I will point out to him that the PSAT and SAT are slightly different, but they are similar.

 

The other way to use scores are to look at what they missed (not just math, writing, etc), but what types of questions. If there's a pattern, then those areas can be studied more to attain more knowledge in them. If there isn't really a pattern, then just studying by practicing more tests at home to keep the brain fresh on all sorts of types is the best prep.

[snowbeltmom]

My oldest took the PSAT and the ACT last year as a freshman. Both composite scores were in the same percentile. We decided to concentrate on the SAT because (at least officially) more colleges superscore the SAT than the ACT.

[Brenda in MA]

DD did great on reading / writing, not great in math. She tested this year as a junior & last year as a sophomore. We were warned on the forum, that scores could actually go down...and hers did. Percentile ranking stayed the same.

 

How can we use this info to choose SAT vs. ACT, and then, what prep do you use for SAT?

 

 

With my oldest, after he had received his junior PSAT scores, I went to the library and checked out an ACT prep book. I had him work through one complete test untimed so that he could get a feel for the types of questions. Then, I had him take a full ACT test out of the practice book under timed conditions. I scored that one and compared his percentile score to the percentile score from his PSAT.

 

For him, the ACT turned out to be a better test, and by quite a wide margin. His main issue was that he had a bit of math phobia, and he really did poorly on the grid-in math questions on the PSAT. His poor performance on the grid-in part was even after he had taken PreCalc, so it wasn't a matter of not knowing the math. He also got most of the multiple choice math questions on the PSAT correct.

 

So -- anyway -- after discovering that the ACT was a better test for him, he spent the winter/early spring doing more practice tests and took the real thing in April of his junior year. His score was very good, so he only took it once. He never took the full official SAT.

 

My next one has different kinds of strengths/weaknesses. In particular, he tends to work very well and completely, but more slowly than one would like. Since I knew that the ACT tends to have more time-pressure, I decided to have him focus on the PSAT & SAT.

 

As far as prep resources for the ACT, my older one used the red official ACT book. My younger guy used the SAT blue book. I second Jen's suggestion of working through the blue book and carefully reviewing what was missed. Familiarity with the test and the tricky wording on some questions really helps. For the essay, my sons just did the practice essay questions from the prep books. From their English studies, they had a couple of novels that they could use for examples. They also have a great knowledge of history from using Sonlight in the elementary/middle years, so they had lots of examples from history that they could pull from. During the practice sessions, they worked on coming up with a couple of word outline in 2 - 3 minutes, and then spent the rest of the time writing.

 

HTH,

Brenda