My son went to a prep session tonight geared for those going for National Merit and they had the kids doing English sections from the ACT, maybe that would help? Most of these kids there have already done the one PSAT test and the four SAT practice tests. You don’t have much time but maybe it something you can work on Tuesday?
@3scoutsmom Have your children taken IvyGlobal’s released practice test?
I have the book but have decided not to give it to the kids, there’s some miss information in there and I’m not sure how accurate their practice tests are, they were written before CB released the first official practice test. I might feel differently if my kids were class of 2017 but they are class of 2018 and class of 2020 so we have time on our side.
It really does make me happy that a so-so math score (say, 35-36) won’t kill by chances. However, prescholar’s estimates seem low to me (don’t mean to question their credibility, have appreciated the site in the past). It took me 20-30 hours of prep before I could get a practice score on the old SAT of 220 or higher (California cutoff). However, on the new one, I got over the estimated cutoff on my first try, and it seems like most CC members are doing so as well. Before I saw the projected scores, I assumed the cutoff for California would be around 220 (on the 228 scale), rather than the 210 score prepscholar suggests.
"the selection index is merely favoring the English side of the test takes, which is obviously unfair. " Why? All disciplines require verbal skills but many require no math skills.
^It’s unfair because the poster is not as strong in that area, I guess.
The English side has always* been double the math side for NM consideration. So, this is not a change to make it more unfair or differently unfair.
- where "always" is at least since 1981.
You cannot be good at math and horrible at english and be a top 1%er, top 1%ers need to be good at both. I do not think the weighting of english and math will have as big of an affect as some posters seem to think. Those good at english will still need very good math scores for NMF.
Effect.
The weighting hasn’t been changed from the current system. It just looks unnecessarily complicated now.
I feel like the new (and “improved”) PSAT is MUCH easier, And I believe that this will lead a higher average score, does anyone agree? This will alter the state cutoff right?
I don’t think the Barron’s PSAT guide was the best choice for me to take practice tests out of. They seemed to be a little harder than the one released by the CB.
I only took the official one that CB released. They seemed really easy. Any other input?
@deeeznuts I took the one from CB and they seemed easier to me too…I scored around 140. I’m also wondering how the cutoff will work especially since I compared with others in my class of similar skill and they all scored pretty well. Does anyone know if the cutoff given by prepscholar is going to be an underestimate?
@ambitiousgeek not sure how you got to 140 - is that the selection index for the PSAT? The range is 48-228 for the new PSAT for selection index.
No one knows (not even prepscholar) what the estimate will be until a year from now. I’m guessing if you get 5x or less on the WHOLE TEST, you can feel confident you will meet the cutoff. But that is just a guess…
Just a thought, but couldn’t NMSC use SAT scores and GPA etc. in the finalist round to thin the herd when they find out too many kids are bunched up at the top after the PSAT? Maybe they’ll just be more semifinalists this year.
Why couldn’t they just simply raise the cutoff score?
I agree with both of the posters above. The new PSAT seems much easier (if it’s going to be similar to the releases practice test).
I think they’re going to raise the cutoff score, but even then, they’re still going to have a lot more semi-finalists.
Maybe they made this test easier to attract future customers… :))
Then raise the cutoff EVEN HIGHER.
Will there still be curves for the PSAT, like in case the average scores higher on Math, the scaled scores would be harsher?