Ok I know that kids that are really sick or get into a car accident on the way to the PSAT etc. are allowed to submit their SAT in place of their PSAT. I just learned that a student that took the PSAT but had a lower than anticipated score on his PSAT is being allowed to submit an SAT score in place of his 11th grade PSAT. Evidently he took the PSAT in 10th grade and scored 214 (4 or 5 points bellow our state’s cut off anyway) but on his 11th grade PSAT he only scored 1300 which correlates to a lower score than his 10th grade PSAT. They are letting him submit his SAT because of the disparity between the 10th and 11th grade scores.
Has anyone every heard of this before? I heard this directly from his mother who is very aware of NM, as her oldest child was a NMF. When the mom was telling me about this she didn’t mention any illness but did volunteer that her son refused to do any prep for the new PSAT.
Absolutely ridiculous! How many kids are doing this I wonder? I have to imagine it is widespread amongst GCs “in the know,” further giving an edge to a certain demographic. S15 already had an SAT score well above any state cut off when he sat for the PSAT. Guess, we should have been savvy enough to just have him come down with a mysterious illness that Saturday morning and not show up, But who knew kids could just tell CB they had a “bad day?” I predict a CC epidemic of “bad days” next October after this post.
@3scoutsmom, How can we indeed confirm this? This is making me upset for sure. My stomach is in knots over this.
@VANURSEPRAC you should check out this thread is case you missed it
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19110554#Comment_19110554
after learning that someone can not only miss the PSAT and replace it with the SAT but can retake the SAT several times in this situation and since the they have up to March 1st (well after PSAT scores are released) to request an alternate test I suspect that the “bad day” option isn’t something new, just something that people don’t talk about.
I have to wonder how many students are allowed to submit an alternative test each year and how many of those go on to be NMF? Personally I would never have my child miss the PSAT unless it was a true emergency. Not only do I think it’s not fair but I’m not sure I trust the GC to jump through the hoops necessary to get approval for an alternate test.
I’m very glad I had my son take the new PSAT this year even though he’s only in 10th grade. Next year, if for some reason he scores lower than this year’s score (which should make NMSF in TX) I’ll plead “bad day” too now that I know it’s an option!
I know of one child who had an anxiety attack during PSAT testing, and her GC contacted NMCorp and an alternate SAT was submitted.
I posted a month ago that my nephew’s high school has MANY PSAT test scores missing…MANY…NMCorp can’t find them, and the high school is insisting that ALL of the tests were sent in. So, a large group from that school are doing the alternate test thing. My nephew had a near-perfect SAT in October, so they’re going to use that. However, NMCorp said that if the PSAT tests show up between now and June 1st, then the PSATs will get used.
I don’t like this idea of a kid taking the PSAT, not liking his score, and then getting to use a SAT score. That is unfair and changes the whole thing.
@mom2collegekids I think we agree. I have no problem with kids that have a legitimate issue during the test (anxiety attack, asthma attack…) but those should be reported right away. I also thinks kids shouldn’t be responsible for the failure of the CB if they loose the scores, that’s just crazy!
My issue is two fold, letting kids claim an issue after they get their scores back and letting kids take the SAT multiple times and only using the highest score.
I wonder how often this is abused…not that anyone is going to admit it.
Ok…my brother called me today and his son’s PSAT (and others from his school) was found and scored. He got a perfect score.
HOWEVER, NMCorp is not counting any of their PSATs, so they will all be using SATs.
My brother was not told a reason, but I suspect that the high school found these wayward tests and sent them in late, which made their validity questionable… this is a large school that has sophs and juniors take the exam, so out of 2000 exams, about 200 went wayward. I’m guessing that somehow they were mislaid and not put into the shipping box.
Oh man, I’d be livid that his score won’t be counted. What a shame.
I thought scores were sent electronically from CB to NM not from the CB to the school and then to NM?
I’m glad the scores were found but I’d be ticked if my kids perfect PSAT was not counted for NM!
Wait, I just reread that and now understand that the school didn’t sent in the actual PSAT for grading on time?? How in the world does that happen? I’d be very vexed with the school and insist that they pay for the SAT!
Good news is since your nephew got a perfect PSAT score, he should do very well on the SAT.
So, I am a bit confused. Do GCs make the decision of those that take the alternate test?
I am asking because my child did not do as well as was predicted on the PSAT. Once she saw the score report it became clear that she had misbubbled the math section and had a large run of incorrect answers – each one letter off of the correct answer below. Child’s GC called her in and confirmed that she had marked her answer sheet incorrectly and would have only missed 2 questions (one that was double bubbled that started it all and one other) on the entire test. The GC indicated that this mistake cost the NMF process. Would this be a reason for using an alternate test?
Yes, but the deadline was March 1st. If the GC hasn’t already reported it it’s too late.
Oh crud… I have learned so much in the past few months reading here-- wish I would have read this one a few days earlier. The GC seemed genuinely surprised and upset about my daughters mistake. She went on to encourage her with her SATs. She is experiences and has been very successful in helping many many years of students – either she didn’t realize about this, or she didn’t think it was the right thing to do.
Oh well.
@novicemom23kids, if this were my kid, and she would likely make NMSF but for the misbubbling, I’d raise a stink. You brought this to the attention of the GC, action should have been taken to rescore the test. I’d contact CB about it, and also have your GC raise it with CB.
<<<Wait, I just reread that and now understand that the school didn’t sent in the actual PSAT for grading on time?? How in the world does that happen? I’d be very vexed with the school and insist that they pay for the SAT!<<<
Nobody is providing what really happened to the tests. However, if CB had the tests the whole time, then I doubt there would be any issues with validity. The tests must have been delayed thru the school. The school must have mislaid the wayward tests, then later found them and sent them in.
I can confirm this is exists. I was supposed to take the test with accomodations but my 504 coordinator person literally asked for all accomodations but the right one. They told me I can take the SAT from the December one to the March one and submit any score I like. I know this sounds unfair but it really is just trouble in the end for me, at least. I go to a midwest high school so nobody does anything SAT her and I really didn’t know how the test worked when I was told to have to take it. My PSAT score was 1350 without the accomodations in Missouri. I’m taking the SAT for the final time in two days and I’m expecting that’s the acore I’ll submit it to national merit. I really just wished my coordinator would have done her basic job but it goes on. The SAT is so much worse and I’m glad to be taking the new one. Hopefully the time and expense will pay off.
Update: The high school admitted that, about two weeks ago, it found the 200 missing tests locked in a storage room, along with the question books. They sent them in, NMCorp scored them, but won’t use them.
NMCorp has a rule that tests muct be scored by Dec.
So, the students are allowed to use any SAT score from about Sept 2015 until May 2016. However, some families are upset because their kids took prep classes as sophs, took the SAT, scored well enough, and thought they were “done”. Now they think that their kids won’t have time to prepare for the new SAT because they’re busy with preparing for AP exams.
I think they’re also fearing that some schools require all scores to be reported, and they fear a lower score now.
This doesn’t affect my nephew since he has two SAT scores that qualify…one from Oct and one from Nov. Both are high enough to make NMSF in Calif.
I think the High School should pay for the SAT! Glad your nephew is in the clear!