PSAT scores?

[krcit]

My dd took the PSAT this fall just to see how she would do with no prep. She's in 10th grade. Is the test a good indicator of how she'll do on the SAT? If so I better start saving for a good prep class, lol.

 

[WDWisTheBest]

My dd took the PSAT this fall just to see how she would do with no prep. She's in 10th grade. Is the test a good indicator of how she'll do on the SAT? If so I better start saving for a good prep class, lol.

You will get opinions on both sides of this question. Does she have a good guidance counselor? If so, she might want to ask the counselor.

 

[bethbuchall]

I have two that have already taken the PSAT and the SAT. Both did much better on the SAT than the PSAT would have predicted. I don't know why they did so poorly on the PSAT.

 

[jsmith]

The greatest value of the PSAT is that it is the qualifing test for the National Merit Scholarship program. We did not find it to be at all indicative of how our boys would do or did on the SAT.

 

[java]

you know now that you mention it I have not seen my son's scores yet? I should have gotten them by now I believe.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Can't go wrong with prepping. It did raise my dd's score.

 

[krcit]

you know now that you mention it I have not seen my son's scores yet? I should have gotten them by now I believe.

Java, they just came today in the mail from the school.

I'm not going to bother the guidance counselor since dd is only a soph. She just wanted to get an idea of what to expect. She now knows what she needs to work on( can you say writing skills?lol!) Holy moly, college is still more than 2 years away and I can already feel myself starting to panic

 

[MulanUSAF]

My PSAT scores were about 100 points lower on each part compared to the real SAT scores taken about 7 months later (with no SAT prep class in between). I think part of it was the mentality "oh, this isn't the real thing". Try the ACT as well, because some people do significantly better on that test than the SAT. My little brother was one of those, he actually took a SAT prep class, but still scored lower percentile wise compared to his ACT scores which was significantly better with no prep.

 

[allison443]

Java, they just came today in the mail from the school.

I'm not going to bother the guidance counselor since dd is only a soph. She just wanted to get an idea of what to expect. She now knows what she needs to work on( can you say writing skills?lol!) Holy moly, college is still more than 2 years away and I can already feel myself starting to panic

Not to scare you, but even though she won't start college until fall 2013, the second half of junior year/beginning of senior year is really "crunch time" for college testing, applications, college visits, etc.

Supposedly if you add a zero to the PSAT scores you will get an approximation of your SAT scores. However, I think that is for the junior year test and your dd is only a sophomore so that's probably not accurate. I think it's good to be aware of what she needs to work on though.
When the time comes for the real college testing, I also recommend taking the SAT and the ACT like another poster said. Then only send the better scores to the colleges! All colleges accept both tests.

 

[mill4023]

I'm not sure how much the tests or scoring have changed in the last 20 years, but when I took them in 1986 and 1987, my percentile score was about the same on both.

My 7th grader just took the SAT, so I'm really curious to see what kind of scores she gets and how they compare to what she gets when she's a junior. She's incredibly bright and always scores in the 97th or 98th percentile on standardized tests, but she said there was a lot of vocabulary and math on the SAT that she didn't know.

 

[libraryfreak]

Did you know that kids in private ($35,000 a year and up just for tuition) schools will pay for about 40 hours of private tutoring for the SAT/ACT? Have your child study. Buy books (I grab them from book sales). This is not a test you can start studying for the week before. Take practice tests - the tests are grueling - 5 hours long IIRC. That takes stamina. Knowing what to expect helps.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

I'm not sure how much the tests or scoring have changed in the last 20 years, but when I took them in 1986 and 1987, my percentile score was about the same on both.

My 7th grader just took the SAT, so I'm really curious to see what kind of scores she gets and how they compare to what she gets when she's a junior. She's incredibly bright and always scores in the 97th or 98th percentile on standardized tests, but she said there was a lot of vocabulary and math on the SAT that she didn't know.

My 8th grader took the SAT last month and we got her scores the other day.

She also took the ACT last yr as a 7th grader and is taking it again this yr on saturday. (She has an application in for a college program for summer 2011.)

Now my dd does well in the language arts dept., so no surprise when her ACT scores last yr were up there. For example she got a 29 in the reading part. Overall her score was a 24 composite for 7th grade.

Anyway here are her SAT scores for 8th. She took it stone cold. Did not even do a practice test.

Critical Reading 540
Math 440
Writing 450

My dd is doing this because she does not want to go to a state school.
In order to do that she knows she has to get scholarships so she says she is going to take the SAT and ACT every yr.

Her sister is a college sophmore and she does not want to end up at a small state school like her. Or the BIG state school that dh and I went to.

Brats.....

 

[MarkBarbieri]

If I recall, the PSAT is the important one. The SAT is only used for admittance. The PSAT is where the money is.

 

[agnes!]

If I recall, the PSAT is the important one. The SAT is only used for admittance. The PSAT is where the money is.

Ummmm...not exactly. The PSAT is the test *only* for the National Merit Scholarship competition, but if the student gets a good enough score on the SAT or the ACT that can make them eligible for Merit Aid from the college/university itself.
As a side note, I know kids who got GREAT scores on the PSAT *but* because their state's applicant scores were so high, they were not eligible for any National Merit Scholarship money (in other states they most certainly would have gotten into the eligibility pool).

agnes!

 

[marcyinPA]

My DS15 (10th grade) took them this fall too, but no results yet. We have received a few phone calls trying to sell us prep materials.

He took them just so he could get a feel for them before they really count. He had a really hard time with the math. He hasn't had Geometry yet (he has it next semester) and from what he said, it was pretty heavy in that subject.

I am definitely planning on signing him up for a prep course next year. He is going to need it....no naturally smart people in this house!

 

[ashleybea]

Actually I did terribly on the PSATs. So I bought a SAT prep book from borders and my school offered an SAT prep class as an elective for school credit. Maybe your dds school has a class like that?
After all that i did pretty good on my SATs. I also took them twice just so I could send both to the schools I applied to. (I dont know if they do this anymore but, when I sent my scores the schools took the better grades and like if i did good in all but one section they would take the section i did bad in from the other test and use that).
I hope this made sense. Good Luck!

 

[NVDisMom]

Our guidance counselors tell us to test early and test often! I have no idea how the PSAT scores compare to SAT scores, but I do know that many younger students do better on the ACT right off the bat. There are websites out there that offer prep too, so don't feel like you have to pay a tutor big bucks to get it done. My 8th grader is guiding herself with occasional questions posed to us on a free prep site for the ACT in Feb.

 

[Debbie7452]

Here's a tip for "free tutoring"! I signed up my DD for the SAT question of the day through Collegeboard.com. It is free and a question from the SAT is emailed to her every day, when you answer it it will tell you right or wrong and give an explanation. Every once in a while(over the last year) she would do a group of them for practice. She said they really helped! There also was a dictionary.com word of the day she signed up for...also good.

My DD is a junior so I am on pins and needles to get her score. Ours haven't come yet...I know about where the cut off will be for National Merit for our state. NY is really a tough state for that, it's a lot higher than Texas!