Got more correct, but Math went DOWN???

Test Preparation
1

<p>Can someone please help me understand this?</p>

<p>On the PSAT, my son got <em>more</em> questions right this year (11th grade) than last year (10th grade). And yet, his "score" went down by 1 point. Why is that?</p>

<p>AND.... his percentile went WAAAY down!!?!</p>

<p>10th grade PSAT:
Correct = 19 / 38
Omitted 13 questions
"Score" = 49
Math Percentile rank among sophomores: ....68%</p>

<p>11th Grade PSAT:
Correct = 21 / 38
Omitted only 4 questions
"Score" = 48
Math Percentile rank among Juniors: ....48% OUCH</p>

<p>He took Algebra II during 10th grade, so that advantage shouldn't matter. (Unless perhaps it's because his teacher was so crappy -- teacher was also a coach and was absent about 25% of the time. Really pi$$ed me off.)</p>

<p>Son also worked some in the College Board's prep book, took a practice test in the booklet, and met with a very good tutor for two separate hours of specifically-targeted PSAT practice & review using the College Board's book.</p>

<p>Did his score go down so much because he got more "wrong" (as opposed to just omitting them), and so he got penalized 1/4 point for each wrong answer?</p>

<p>I'm really wondering, did anyone else have a similar decline in math scores?</p>

<p>Was there a harsh math curve, or did he just blow it?</p>

<p>+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++</p>

<p>Overall scores:
CR 63 .... 90th percentile
MA 48 ....48th percentile
Writing 63 ...93rd percentile
OVERALL: 174 ....84th percentile</p>

<p>So you can see how the math REALLY affected his scores!! >:-(</p>

2

<p>SAT and PSAT take off 1/4 point for each wrong answer. It’s the guessing penalty. What your son actually did was score 19/25 and 21/34. That would be 19-1.5=17.5 for 10th grade. 21-3.25=17.75 for 11th grade. Pretty much the same score. The percentile is based upon how he did compared to everyone else. Last year’s test must have been harder.</p>

<p>Looks like he needs to concentrate on the math before taking the SAT.</p>

3

<p>Do you know if he omitted problems b/c he ran out of time or b/c he did not know the material? My son omitted quite a few during his sophomore year PSAT but they were almost all the last five or six problems in each section. His speed increased with a great deal of SAT prep this summer. </p>

<p>The math curve is much less forgiving than the CR or writing curves. You can see this on CB’s Blue Book scoring charts. As Erin’s Dad said, much practice is needed. My son found Gruber’s book useful once he had identified the areas where he was making mistakes. Good luck!</p>

4

<p>Urrgggh I have the same problem</p>

5

<p>percentile is because its versus JUNIORS instead of SOPHOMORES. this happened to a lot of people in my school lol</p>