skipping the PSAT junior year?

[ktgrok]

I hadn't realized it is scheduled on a day that my son has his dual enrollment courses at the college. He'd miss three classes, and has already missed this semester due to illness and it was hard to catch up. Realistically, although he's very smart, he has done zero prep work and based on his scores last year, I'm not anticipating him making national merit. Is it horrible of us to just skip the PSAT? 

 

Will I be hurting him in some way?

 

Or can we just focus on the SAT and make sure he starts prepping for that? (he refused the tutoring I was gong to set up for him for the PSAT and said he'd do his on on Khan, then didn't, sigh.) This is my kid with Aspergers and other issues, and the fact that he is doing well in his college courses right now is a HUGE thing. He's happy, he's getting good grades, and so I haven't pressed him on the PSAT prep. Now i'm kind of kicking myself. 

[Guest2]

I would skip it. Being stressed about missing classes could play into his score. Depending on how/where/if he wants to go to a four year school, he could even transfer . If he uses that option, he could skip all of the standardized tests anyway. Congrats on his success in DE. A happy teenager. Big win!

By the way my DS missed the cutoff for NM by two points, and was commended. No scholarship/merit money from state flagship. My DD is hoping to transfer to same school and is Phi Theta Kappa from CC. If her grades stay high, she will get the scholarship(it is automatic). She has never taken the SAT or ACT. Go figure.

[KarenNC]

Honestly, given you don't expect NM status (and cutoffs seem to have gotten a good bit higher this year for even semifinalist), I wouldn't worry about it in favor of working on the things that are already going well and will definitely impact college (the dual enrollment classes). 

[ktgrok]

Thank you. With a kid with Aspergers and ADHD (now medicated, thankfully!) I just don't want to pile another thing on him, and rock the boat when he is doing so well. 

[teachermom2834]

My first ds took the PSAT sophomore year and from those scores we knew he would not be close to NM.  He had some other event the day of PSAT junior year and skipped the PSAT.  He never even took the SAT.  He did well on the ACT.  No regrets skipping PSAT.

 

My second ds is a junior this year and has never taken the PSAT.  He won't take the SAT and will likely have a nice ACT score.  Bright kid just not NM level.

 

No regrets here at all skipping the PSAT!

[RootAnn]

I wouldn't worry about the PSAT for a kid who isn't close to NM numbers.

[regentrude]

If he has no realistic shot at National Merit, there is no point in taking the PSAT.

[MysteryJen]

We are skipping it for ds2. He prepped for the ACT in the summer and NM was going to be very, very unlikely.

[Hilltopmom]

My ds is skipping too. He has DE class that day & internship hours.

He's not going to be NM so I decided not to worry about it.

 

planning to get first SAT done in Jan (in between DE semesters, so in theory he should have prep time) & retest in May.

[Matryoshka]

I'm having dd skip it partly because I'm not even sure which year will be 11th grade.  She's turning 16 in Dec, and by our state cut-offs should be in 10th, but she wants to be done by next year - although I'm fine with her taking another if she ends up needing or wanting to. But you can only take the thing as an 11th grader once.  We also have one of the highest NMF cut-offs in the country, and I seriously doubt she'd make the cut anyway - so we're just skipping it.

 

I do plan to have her take the ACT and the SAT this year.  Need to get on that...

[charlotteb]

I would skip it if your son isn't expected to be a National Merit Scholarship Finalist.  My DS never took his PSAT and he is now a college sophomore.  No problems!

[JudoMom]

My 11th grader is missing it.  He just started a new job (this is his second week) and he's got a morning shift tomorrow (last week he was all afternoon shifts, so it didn't occur to us that it was even a potential conflict).  Like you, I don't expect him to be NM, so I'm trying not to let it bother me.  I don't know that I'd have him miss any of his DE classes for it, either.
 

I'm mostly bummed I won't see how he's improved over last year.

Oh, well.
 

 

[G5052]

I knew that my older one was in the running for NM because he's always been in the high 90's on standardized testing. He took it three times, and with the last one just missed NM. We live in a high cut-off state. He did get some scholarship offers from that, but none were outstanding in the scheme of things.

 

My younger one aces anything language arts, but struggles with math. So we didn't do it. She's taken the SAT twice and will take the ACT in February. Done deal.

[...................]

If you don't expect National Merit status, there's no point.  We plan to just have our son take the SAT twice at least.

[Lanny]

I was planning for DD to take the PSAT now, when she is a Sophomore, but then I did some studying on the College Board web site and I moved that back to when she is a Junor.  In the case of my DD, born/raised in Colombia and her mother is  Colombian, she is a "Hispanic" person for U.S. purposes. There is a National Hispanic recognition thing that I hope she will qualify for (the top 5% qualify). That's not a Scholarship, but it might lead to other Scholarship opportunities and look good on a university application. There are other things one can indicate interest in on the PSAT, in addition to National Merit.  Those things and others are for U.S. Citizens.    

 

IMO if your DC can take the PSAT, the other advantage is getting an idea what the SAT will be like and what the test room, the stress, etc., will be like.

[learners4life]

We didn't do it.  Just didn't have the time.  We have no regrets whatsoever.  We knew SAT scores were what were going to matter the most to us, and she scored very, very well on that when the time came.  So, my thought is, regardless of how you expect your child to score, don't force yourself to do it if it doesn't work for your student.

 

[RootAnn]

IMO if your DC can take the PSAT, the other advantage is getting an idea what the SAT will be like and what the test room, the stress, etc., will be like.

 

For us, the environment for the PSAT is completely different than for the SAT (or the ACT). The ACT is taken at the local brick-and-mortar school, in a classroom. They won't let homeschoolers in, so she's taking the PSAT one district over - in a small office, on the floor, with about 4-5 other kids. If she needs to take the SAT, it'll be at a HUGE high school over 1 1/2 hours away, probably in a large cafeteria-type setting.

 

So, sometimes, this might help. Othertimes, it won't.

[GoodGrief]

My oldest daughter skipped the jr year PSAT. She was out of the country, and an unlikely NM candidate. I would not think twice about having him miss it. :-)