<p>I wouldn't worry about it, from personal experience. Sophomore year, no studying: 194. Junior year, one practice test (no other prep): 235. I would wait until next year, when it still doesn't matter. From there, as a family you can make a completely informed decision.</p>
<p>With all due respect, anecdotal evidence from folks scoring 194 and the like in sophomore year, may not translate well to the masses! Good job!</p>
<p>OK, so if we're talking Duke TIP, I guess we're not talking the masses....</p>
<p>Are we talking Duke TIP? </p>
<p>How much did Shrinkrap Jr. go up from 9th to 10th grade?</p>
<p>My s did similarly to the OP (he scored in the 74th percentile as a freshman), which, in our opinion, was not anywhere near what he should have done. How much can, with prep, a kid improve in two years. My son is currently taking Algebra 2 (had Geo and Alg 1 in MS).</p>
<p>"Are we talking Duke TIP? "</p>
<p>Well that's where the estimate from the percentile came from.</p>
<p>"How much did Shrinkrap Jr. go up from 9th to 10th grade?"</p>
<p>My son went up about 10 points each section.</p>
<p>My daughter got kicked out of testing in sophomore year, for playing with her calculator when she was done with the section. But she went up from about 160 as a freshman to about 184 as a junior, to little over 2K on her junior year SAT. She had a little prep between junior PSAT and junior SAT (which she would only take once), but I don't think it made much difference because she did about 1900 on the prep class pre test. They were like... okay so N0W what?....they actually skipped her last class. She's no "CC" star, but she's in a different league than my son.</p>
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My son went up about 10 points each section.
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<p>Wow, that is significant jump in one year! Thanks for sharing that as possible. My son didn't open the test book and look at any sample questions until the test itself thinking that it didn't count so why bother. When the results were given out in class and his friends all started to compare scores, he regretted not having done any practice (because he was embarrassed by what he felt to be subpar scores). I am fairly sure that next year he will do a few practice problems before the test. I don't know if he will jump up about 30 points (like shrinkrap jr.) but he can try.</p>
<p>No practice in this house either. We're lucky when he turns in homework. Compared to HIS friends, he feels pretty good, but I doubt he'll break a 3.0 and match his scores. Sigh. Good luck!</p>
<p>I went from about 150-ish in my freshman year to lower 200s my junior year, no prep. As you learn more math and take more english, your score gradually goes up. The person in the senior class at my school that is known for a 1600 SAT (Math and Verbal) has a very similar record to mine and made the leap after doing some prep.</p>
<p>I am a parent of a 9th grader who just took practice PSAT (I think this is the same as regular PSAT, but not sure), and he did pretty well. I have a couple of questions:</p>
<p>(1) Can someone please explain the acronyms listed above and their significance? (i.e. what is CTY, TIP, OP and anything else that would be helpful as I read through the posts on these forums)</p>
<p>(2) It seems that the consensus for right now is to encourage 9th graders to READ, READ, READ, and then in 11th grade start some serious prepping with an external resource be it online, Kaplan or whatever.</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>Acronyms like CTY and TIP are talking about out of school enrichment programs that often require a standardized test result for admission. OP is an abbreviation for original poster. </p>
<p>My Ds (daughters) increased their scores 10% each year from freshman year, just from learning more material from school study and becoming more mature. Agree that the 11th grade PSAT is one to prep for (we did the prep from books), especially if you think you can make National MErit Semi-Finalist (NMSF).</p>
<p>Until then, agree that reading and continuing with math are the best ways to "prep" for the test. Don't worry and especially don't freak out your kid at this early date.</p>
<p>jonkras - the abbreviation thread which is stickied at the top of the parent's forum should have all the abbreviations you need: <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52585-abbreviation-thread.html%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/52585-abbreviation-thread.html</a> </p>
<p>CTY is Center for Talented Youth (run by Johns Hopkins)
TIP is Talent Identification Program (run by Duke)
both programs use SAT scores to identify middle schoolers who may be ready for more advanced work.</p>
<p>OP is original post(er)</p>
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and then in 11th grade start some serious prepping with an external resource be it online, Kaplan or whatever.
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<p>I never resort to any external resource other than previously released genuine College Board or ACT tests. I keep up the read, read, read advice straight through high school all the way into college.</p>
<p>A good source for getting accustomed to the format and difficulty of SAT questions (and this works for PSAT as well) is to sign up for the Question of the Day via the College Board. S2 did this and found it quite helpful. It's only one question a day -- not too onerous -- and S2 did this on his own without me ever suggesting it or nagging. Big advantage right there!!! The</a> Official SAT Question of the Day™</p>
<p>OP, remember that a score of around 1500 (150 PSAT plus tack on a zero at the end) is the average SAT score for high school seniors.</p>
<p>Neither of our kids did ANY prep for 9th or 10th PSAT testing. That said, S2 in particular benefited from the intense academic curriculum at his HS -- pre-IB English did wonders for his CR. Getting through a tough pre-IB Alg II with Functions class helped math a lot as well. Each did practice from a few PSATs (and one full run-through) before the junior year test. S2 went up 22 points from 9th to 10th grade and another 15 from 10th to 11th. We have the second highest NMSF cutoff in the country, though, and he is agonizingly close, so we will be waiting until September to find out what happens.</p>
<p>I will echo the read, read, read. It doesn't have to be books; articles on NYT online or National Geographic, The Economist, or whatever interests your son and is written at a fairly high level will help him to improve his vocab and comprehension.</p>
<p>Q of the Day is very good. It also very slowly builds up vocabulary. Vocabulary is pretty important but I think cramming that doesn't work at all. Reading good writing really helps - after a while, you know what is good, even if you can't quote a rule.
A 150ish PSAT in 9th grade is NOT something to worry about.</p>
<p>I would say that this would indicate that unless your S wants to spend significant time prepping, the SATs are unlikely to be an enormously positive part of his application.</p>