<p>My son didn't practice at all for the PSAT. He'd taken the SAT a couple of times for CTY talent searches so he was familiar with the format.</p>
<p>10th grade: PSAT218
11th grade: PSAT 233</p>
<p>
[quote]
for the 2007 competition (2005 PSAT), minimum scores required for Semifinalist recognition ranged from 204 in Mississippi to 224 in Massachusetts, with an unweighted mean of 215.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>From <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSAT%5B/url%5D">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSAT</a></p>
<p>For my older S, PSAT went up 1 point between 9th and 10th, and then up by 18 between 10th and 11th. Were it not for a bubbling error, it would have been +22. </p>
<p>The only practice was about three weeks of 3 times a week, doing 30 minutes of individual sections in the two areas where he wanted to increase his scores for the 11th grade PSAT. He also did the practice test in one sitting the weekend before as an endurance run. He did no prep at all for 9th and 10th (and forgot it was happening last year).</p>
<p>For the SAT, he is working on making sure that he gets through the essay in 25 minutes, and looking at a couple specific areas within sections. </p>
<p>Younger DS is a freshman and wlll benefit from more direct practice to learn the format of the questions. He didn't practice for the PSAT at all -- he's in an IB program and is playing football, so we wanted him to focus on grades at this stage. He has plenty of time.</p>
<p>My 10th grade PSAT score was actually worse than my 9th grade SAT score....I'm not real sure what happened there. It went up by a few points the next year and then my actual SAT scores were like 150+ higher. Dunno what it was about that test...maybe it was because I just assumed it would be so much easier that I wouldn't have to try as hard.</p>
<p>Reading through this thread has led me to the conclusion that one reason the cutoff score varies by state is that some places make sure kids prep beforehand and others do nothing of the sort.</p>
<p>I don't know a single kid who took the PSAT as a 10th grader. In the fall of my son's 10 grade year, I asked the GC about it and she said it was too late already. I asked why they hadn't sent out a notice or something and was told "Oh, well, we know some places encourage 10th graders to take it, but we don't do that here". I thought that was bad enough, but that was the year the number of NMSF fell from 17 to 2. The school admitted in a newspaper article that "we kind of forgot to remind the 11th graders to sign up this year."</p>
<p>This year they were back up to 12 at son's school. I know almost all of those kids, and not one that I know took a prep course, few looked at a practice test ahead of time, and the idea of an in-school course is pretty laughable. One or two took the SAT as 7th graders, but most of the eligible kids didn't bother. I think this state's cutoff is about 217 or so. I'm guessing that the point spread between here and MA would be lessened by at least a few points if the kids prepped like they do in MA.</p>
<p>Midmo:</p>
<p>I don't think you can draw that conclusion. Our school in MA, for instance, does nothing to prepare students for the PSAT. No one is encouraged to take the PSAT before 11th grade. In fact, we were told that the PSAT was just practice for the SAT and not some test that might lead to scholarships, etc...
The only 10th grader I know who took the PSAT is S2--but that's because he knew he wanted to graduate early. He took the SAT the following March or April--can't remember.</p>
<p>The cutoff is based on the performance of the top 1% or so of PSAT takers in each state. The higher the performance, the higher the cutoff. Given the number of great school districts in MA, I'm not surprised that the performance of students in those districts should be so high, nor the state's cutoff should be the highest. (This is not taking into account the many prep schools).</p>
<p>I'm relieved to hear that some schools, even in MA, do not encourage the testing rat-race mentality. I prefer the somewhat laid-back approach here, although forgetting to remind 11th graders to sign up for the PSAT is not good, since it favors kids with college educated parents.</p>
<p>As you know, Marite, I lived in MA for a while, and I'm well aware that on average, the parents of college-bound juniors have more formal education, likely leading to higher average PSAT scores even without test prep. I should have typed 'suspicion' instead of 'conclusion'. Does anyone know of any good studies that look at test prep by state and the effect on scores?</p>
<p>It would probably be hard to track the very best form of test prep of all--as shown by studies of the highest-scoring students--which is simply to take a complete practice test under actual test time limits, a week or more before the real test. One can do that without any of the expense (or detectability) of taking a commercial prep course. My personal suspicion is that quite a few kids whose "natural" tendency on the PSAT or SAT I would be to score high may score LOWER after taking a commercial prep course, as they learn to substitute rules of thumb designed for average students for a correct understanding of each test item. But, yes, the advantage is all on the side of knowing the test format and knowing how to pace oneself during the test, so the practice test given out to all students who register for the test is the great equalizer: the students who use it as a practice simulated test probably do a lot better than the kids who forget it in their lockers.</p>
<p>Our High Schools (son in one, daughter in another due to zoning changes) both encouraged PSAT prep. All gifted and honors students take the exam in 9th grade. In 10th grade all students take the exam. My D, who's a soph now, says that they spent a week or so in her honors English practicing grammar. And, in her honors Alg. II they also ran a few practice sessions. She distinctly remembers feeling grateful as she took the PSAT that her teacher had reviewed some grammar with them.</p>
<p>Zebes</p>
<p>Midmo says, </p>
<p>"I don't know a single kid who took the PSAT as a 10th grader. In the fall of my son's 10 grade year, I asked the GC about it and she said it was too late already. I asked why they hadn't sent out a notice or something and was told "Oh, well, we know some places encourage 10th graders to take it, but we don't do that here".</p>
<p>Our 10th graders all take the PSAT, but there is no other prep. Taking the test in 10th is supposed to be the prep for taking the test in 11th grade. I suppose one could look at the results and prep on their own, but my son would have none of that:)</p>
<p>My son missed no math questions on the 10th grade PSAT, but missed 2 on the 11th grade PSAT so his math score went down about 6 points. His english score was better so his overall went up a few points, but his missed NMF. Oh well, it's one test on one day.</p>
<p>
[quote]
the students who use it as a practice simulated test probably do a lot better than the kids who forget it in their lockers.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Indeed. </p>
<p>And I agree that it would be hard to study the effects of 'preparation' since there are so many ways to do it.</p>
<p>S is a jr. just got SAT results M780 CR 650 W710...any ideas on bringing up the CR score? He is #1 in his class and gets As in all honors English courses so far. he needs to take it again in March so he will have time to fit in all of the SAT IIs he wants to take. Anyone care to share some techniques?</p>
<p>Our school system offers the PSAT free of charge to 9th and 10th graders, in large part because they are looking to increase the socioeconomic diversity of kids heading to college. As parents, we were told the kids HAD to be at school to take the PSAT -- the school system is highly data-driven and likes to see 90%+ of the kids taking the test. Some classes do PSAT prep; the high schools offer SAT prep classes for credit as an elective.</p>
<p>That said, the daughter of dear friends of ours in another school system barely got into the PSAT last year as a soph (the GCs forgot to tell her about it) and then they didn't allow calculator use. She is ranked 1/400+ in her class. Test prep was a foreign concept to our friends -- it just doesn't happen in their rural district.</p>
<p>foto,</p>
<p>Registration for the March 10 SAT is closed. If he's registered, he doesn't have much time to prepare, but with 780 math, he can focus on CR&W. See the link below, if you haven't already, (up to the 6-1-2005 postings).</p>
<p>Thanks, everyone. My son is now motivated to prep for the writing section, so I guess the low score was not such a bad thing.</p>
<p>Range for 11th grade PSAT scores to make National Merit--depends totally on your state (more heavily populated states with large urban areas have the highest selection indexes, heavily rural states with no ultra-large cities tend to be the lowest...I think the highest for today's Senior class was maybe 224 or 226...lowest was maybe around 204-206, not exact on those figures. Search the threads on CC for selection index cutoffs on National Merit-somewhere, there's a thread which lists several years' worth of figures (selection index has tended to either stay the same, or go up, every year. Extremely rare to go down.)</p>
<p>"there's a thread which lists several years' worth of figures"
Here 'tis...</p>
<p>S's numbers:</p>
<p>10th PSAT: 222 (no prep)
11th PSAT: 234 (minimum prep, signed up the online class at CB)
11th SAT: 2400 (minimum prep, did a few sample tests)</p>
<p>thanks StAndrews for finding that thread with the sel index #'s. All 4 of my kids were NM finalists...don't remember exact scores on older 3 ('97, '98, and '01) but SAT were all right around 1400 of 1600 scale (took it once) No 10th grade PSAT's-didn't know they could take it early back then. Youngest is a senior, did take 10th grade psat, sel index 210; 11th gr sel index 219. Sr. SAT 2210 (also NM finalist.)</p>