Neither intentional no test prep, nor only test prep all year are economical. There must be a sweet spot for each kid where certain amount, wether skimming a guide or having year round tutoring, and rarely that spot would be not preping at all.
@SculptorDad I agree! But our school’s intention is to get a baseline sophomore year in order to plan prep for SAT etc, not to max out a score on the first attempt (She will take the PSAT again as a Junior. My daughter is essentially a 9th grader so plenty of time still.) Her current school gives all sophomores the PSAT cold as do many schools and she took it as a freshman in lieu of SSAT which was not available, but I don’t know how to judge her percentiles when she is taking a test designed for juniors as a freshman. Regarding a “good enough” score, pretty sure I have asked the unanswerable.
Did she take the PSAT10 or the PSAT/NMQST as I believe there’s a difference as mentioned somewhere else here. The PSAT10 being easier I guess.
My son took the latter cold as a sophomore and got a 1220 or 94%. The school was looking for the baseline for their own reasons and I believe it as to identify potential for AP courses.
In his case though, he started guessing at 75% done on the reading and writing sections as he ran out of time. This was helpful as some recent testing shows he has a major processing situation and will need extra time next year even though his overall WISC was scored at 130.
@chemmchimney – Just make sure that the schools will take the PSAT for a sophomore applicant. Most of the schools we applied to asked for either the ISEE or the SSAT for 9th/10th grade admission and would only take the PSAT for 11th grade applicants.
@chemmchimney In that case, I think probably no prep might work.
In fact, my own daughter took her first SAT two days ago with no prep as a freshman. The purpose was trying to qualify for a Summer program, and I think she can still meet the score requirement.
Personally I believe that some prep would still be very helpful for her getting the most out of this experience that she invested majority of a Saturday. Alas, she didn’t have much time after regular homework. So be it.
@GoatMama - I have been looking at the other boards (senior year board is a bit different than the younger grades) and am very glad that both my kids are in schools that don’t rank and don’t weight GPA and where what classes you take are based on interest and aptitude. So happy not to have to play that game! Both are very academic and doing well in school. S1 has taken some AP classes, and a few AP exams, but just what he is interested in doing.
@chemmchimney My DS did submit a PSAT score, but in addition to the SSAT. He took the PSAT “cold” in 9th grade and happened to do very well, so we figured we might as well submit it. At his LPS, the PSAT is offered but is optional for 9th graders. Most boarding schools require the SSAT for 9th and 10th grade applications, even if you have taken the PSAT. I would think a “good” PSAT score would be one that is at or above the average score for the school to which you are applying. If you cannot find an average PSAT, you can extrapolate based on their SAT scores to see where your DC would fall. I am curious as to why others do not submit PSAT scores when applying for repeat 9th or 10 grade. Our LPS is not very academic, but all 3 of my DC took the PSAT as 9th graders - is this not a common practice?
As far as I know PSAT is only routinely offered to 9th graders at one private school near me. I assume you mean the original PSAT (PSAT/NMSQ or PSAT 10) - now that there is a new PSAT 8/9. More schools that I know of offer/require PSAT in 10th grade.
At our LPS in MA it was traditionally offered in 11th grade but this year they decided to require 10th graders take it. They claim to be using the scores as a baseline for outcomes assessment and recommendations for AP classes. They told students the Friday before the Wednesday so no prep at all and not sure the results will be all that useful.
our daughter was offered PSAT this year at her prep school, we told her not to take it as I read that only 11th grade counts. bad advice on my part.
Grier offers tests to all who want to take. Mine took SAT in January cold just in case she needs it for a Summer camp. I don’t believe in taking a test without prep, but this time she had to because she didn’t have time for prep between school works.
@AppleNotFar, thanks to the sage advice of @doschicos, DD requested an athletic recruitment college counseling session with adviser and coach before Spring Break, and now they have a game plan. It’s a relief to know that someone is guiding her in the process.
Thanks for sharing @GoatMama, great idea.
Also, you might find it amusing to know that the class of 2021 thread on the other side was created in January! It appears that these class threads have evolved beyond college search issues.
I’m taking a sabbatical until A10… #:-S
THEY CAME, THEY ATE, THEY LEFT.
^^^ the food! Good heavens, THE FOOD!!!
DD isn’t going to take a Summer camp this year, again. Fingers crossed for her doing something productive during the Summer.
Summer planning is stressing me out. It seems a lot of the kids are participating in academic summer programs and/or community service travel abroad programs. However, DS begged to go back to his 4 week general outdoorsy sleep away camp. He is also doing 2 weeks of ID TECH which is pretty recreational for DS. The sleepaway camp falls right in the middle of other programs and ds only wants to be away for those 4 weeks. He was sooooo bored over break, and filled the time with playing xbox and watching videos of other people paying xbox. (He did other stuff too, but to me it seemed like too much xbox!) He is too young for the jobs around here, too young to be dropped off to volunteer …
We can fill the other weeks with drivers ed and one week sports camps, but then is he OVERscheduled? LOL Where is the balance with this really long summer break?
@carpoolingma, how old is he? If he was bored over spring break, he probably doesn’t want to be bored even more over the even longer summer break. Four week outdoorsy camp, two weeks ID TECH, one week of sports camp, and drivers ed seems just about right. He will have time for summer reading and some Xbox too.
My DD is 15, and I know there aren’t many places that take volunteers younger than 16. I was just able to arrange for her to volunteer in a local animal clinic this summer. We’ve taken our cat there a few times, so I just asked the vet if my kid could volunteer there in the summer. The vet said “But of course!”, gave us a tour of facility, and now someone will have to be dragging the teenager out of bed and delivering her to the vet at 7 freaking o’clock in the morning to clean litter boxes, walk dogs, feed cats and chickens (yep, they had chickens boarding there!) and help with grooming. I’m sure the Xbox is far more appealing than then pooper scooper, but you could try it if nothing else opens up.
We have a local animal shelter that takes volunteers at 14. DC in not allowed to do this though because I fear our pack of 4 pets would grow exponentially.
I’m with you on the planning stress @carpoolingma. So far we’ve cobbled together two week-long sports camps and a 2-week service abroad program. We’re still on the lookout for a meaningful volunteer opportunity for a few weeks, and possibly an academic-type camp, but nothing longer than a week. Plus we’re also trying to fit in drivers ed and some semblance of a family “vacation”. Getting all the dates to work is quite the challenging puzzle.
BTW, does anyone have experience with the National Flight Academy summer program? Sounds super interesting to me but I wonder if it lives up to the description.