<p>Our school district has had one to zero NMSF's over the past several years with a fewer that 10 commended students between 2 HS's. It isn't that there aren't some very bright students in these schools but other than taking the test at school and recognizing students who have done well, our HS's do very little to encourage a stong outcome. Those of you who go to schools that routinely produce multiple SF's what does your school do, if anything to facilitate this outcome? I am mainly asking about mainstream schools. It would be expected that schools geared to a GT population are likely to produce multiple semifinalists. I am looking for suggestions to bring to our school district. Thanks for your help.</p>
<p>Offer some after school PSAT prep classes that are open to all students beginning in early tenth grade (Many private schools have some of their students take the PSAT the first time in 10th grade - although they don't qualify for NMSQT, it's at least some kind of practice for a first-timer with no exposure to these type of standardized tests).</p>
<p>In addition to the open classes, you should have fellow educators who really know your students, highly recommend the prep course for those students who show high academic promise (these could be identified from ninth grade). </p>
<p>Bottom line: The best way to improve on these tests ... practice, practice, practice.</p>
<p>LOL, like 10% of my class gets NMSF</p>
<p>very few people in my class get it, but i think that has a lot to do with the fact that i live in maryland (aka 2nd highest cutoff).</p>
<p>luckily i was one of the few <3</p>
<p>our public HS does absolutely nothing besides providing classroom space for the psat on a Saturday morning. But, ~5% of the class is NMSF every year; kids do it on thier own, with significant SAT prep during summer at soph year. Taking the test as a frosh and a Soph will help identify kids for whom prep may be worth the time. USC is a popular college in SoCal and they offer automatic $$ discounts for NMSF's, so it's well worth it to try.</p>
<p>our high school requires that all sophomores who are in the honors tract for math and english take it for practice. thats about it though. i dont really think it has anything to do with the school, more so the mentality of the students to either prepare and take it seriously. i think my friend and i were the only people in my class to qualify and both our tenth grade scores would have qualified had they counted so i really think its the students not the school with standardized tests. however, having said that, i do think there are certain schools where there are more students who either naturally, or because of their education, push themselves to prepare and do the well on these tests and others where students are more concerned with getting through highschool rather than excelling on a national level.</p>
<p>I come from a ****ty public HS. I'm the first NMSF in about 5 years.</p>
<p>For those of you who said the school did little but many kids qualified. I am wondering how the kids in your school know this is important. Is it something that they talk about in school or is it just what you know from living where you do. I don't think that many of our kids are even aware of the importance of the test. There are also many after school extracurricular activities going on the week of the test, the weeks leading up to it and even the night before the test. Some of these can run quite late. From what I understand teachers and coaches really do very little to acknowledge the test except for that it interrupts their scheduling at some point. Is it this way in schools where kids do well or is it just that those kids are taking small gestures for granted? I am wondering if it is worthwhile to make a case for more student education about the test and some control over extracurricular scheduling at least for kids with a good shot during the test week. Or do you think it is just a matter of review and study. From what I have seen review works well over the summer but with some extracurriculars finding time to review in late Sept and Oct. is hard to come by. Do you see any of this as factors that could improve results? ......
Mxlinx, thanks for your suggestions.
I</p>
<p>Our public HS has every year 50-52 NMSF and the same number of the commended students, so it's 25% of all graduate class. It's not because of school, no any preparator classes or something, it's just students. their parents, the environment. I know that a lot of students sign yp for SAT/ACT preparatory classes during summer - fall of their junior year and study by themselves or with private tutors a LOT, By the time my D. took her first SAT I test ( before PSAT) a lot of her friends were done with it with 2300+ . Maybe, in private schools it's different?</p>
<p>I think a lot of it is a function of kids knowing this test is important. Most of the kids at my HS had no clue. I got it and didn't even know about till after taking them in tenth grade and seeing it mentioned on my results and most kids in my grade still wouldn't have a clue that it exists now after having taken the Psat's once or twice.</p>
<p>We produce about 2-3 every year. This year, we got about 6 which was the highest in a while.</p>
<p>Ohcollege: Do you have any idea how this increase was achieved. Great results for your school!</p>
<p>For those of you that speak about practicing over the summer. Aside from taking a class how much practice are you talking about? Also do you think it is important to be practicing in the fall before the test if you did your work over the summer? If so how much?</p>
<p>Our large, urban district regularly has dozens of NMSF. This year, we have about 40. More than half of those come from one school, an advanced academic magnet. While it could be argued that the "smartest" kids all go to that school and therefore it's not surprising that they have a huge number of NMSF (more than 10% of the senior class), I heard a teacher there say that they "grow" them through exposure to a rigorous curriclum. I can see that. Kids don't have to spend the summer cramming for the PSAT by reading classics and The New Yorker if they read it in class every day.</p>
<p>My dd was NMSF; one of 14 in a class of 190..also 12 commended...almost their highest ever. They are a selective school. Last year as a junior, based on her soph PSAT scores and grades, she was invited to take an elective class called "Honors Seminar", a test prep class only offered in first quarter of year (school has block scheduling so she had @1.5 hours each day for two months). Tons of practice tests, tips, etc., had homework every night and they alternated their days between reading and math and some writing. This class is also offered to the rest of the junior class during the remaining quarters as "critical thinking", with more emphasis on SAT/ACT prep and they write a college application essay. My daughter's score increased 30 points from soph to jr year mostly due to this seminar class. Due to scheduling, she was not taking math soph year at PSAT time and then had geometry during 2nd half of soph year and was taking algebra II at test time junior year. Her scores in all areas improved, though, so I know the class gets more credit than the math scheduling does.</p>
<p>our school stinks..we had one semifinalist one year, but no finalists. I was commended, and we get about 6-7 of those a year.</p>
<p>My school has 37 NMSF's this year. We took about 40% of the entire state's semifinalists; the entire district took about 50%. We have practice sessions and most of these kids are in AP and honors English/math courses. A lot of the semifinalists do private review as well and take classes.</p>
<p>ddd: What your school is doing touches on what I think our district needs to be doing. First by offering the Honors Seminar your school is offering clear support to the kids that could qualify. This is one area that I think we have been lacking. The other is this seminar is taking place right before taking the test so the kids at a sort of peak in their training when they went into the test. Congratulation on your daughters success and the great result.</p>
<p>For most people (parents in particular) the P in PSAT stands for practice and not preliminary so they don't give it much importance. It's a light day with no homework the previous night. Our school usually places 10 to 15 students every year into the top schools in the nation (all Ivies included) and never manages to get more than 2 or 3 NMSF out of a class of almost 800 with 100 in IB. On the other hand since IB really starts in 11th grade (just before the PSAT) you can see the transformation of many of these students into an academically strong group that can really compete against the best.</p>
<p>have a ton of kids</p>
<p>My school has one SF in the ~500 or so 2009 class. Not quite a competitive school.</p>
<p>I'm going to do my best this saturday to qualify, though! ;)</p>
<p>Our PSAT is more expensive ($22 vs. ETS's $13). Most kids in the school don't even know what the PSAT is, or say that it's optional and therefore a waste of a Saturday morning.</p>