<p>"The College Board reports PSAT percentiles for tenth graders based on data for tenth graders. The percentiles for eleventh graders are based on the scores of eleventh-grade test-takers. So, yes, College Board has data on such things. I don't know if they have a handy report on the Web about expected score gains year-on-year"</p>
<p>There is a report on the website about score gains per year, but I can't for the life of me find the percentiles for 10th graders. But I am a moron, so that's not surprising.</p>
<p>"(which is why CB tells states to flag kids 30 points below their state's last year's cutoffs, I think.)"</p>
<p>I think this might be what someone was looking for. This is the link for the whole 2006 end of year report. However, if you scroll down to page 29, and after, there's discussion of scores for 9th, 10th, and 11th grade.</p>
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In general there is 10-15 points in just growing up from 10th to 11th and another 10-15 points available from prep (which is why CB tells states to flag kids 30 points below their state's last year's cutoffs, I think.) It really depends on what your score is and how much you've already prepped, though. Higher scores are harder to bring up, for instance, and if you've already prepped going into the 9th and 10th grade tests there isn't as much chance to improve.
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<p>Interesting. Our public school offers the PSAT to 9th and 10th graders at the district's expense. My oldest took the test both years without any prep, and her scores would have qualified her for NM. Although she did not prep in 11th grade, I was still expecting an increase. I was a bit surprised, though, when her index remained about the same. </p>
<p>My youngest took the test in 9th and 10th, again with no prep. From 9th to 10th, she improved 14 points. Because she was only a couple of points from qualifying last year, she did prep this year by taking a couple of practice tests. It will be interesting to see how much of an increase there is from last year.</p>
<p>This is all very interesting, thanks for the info. </p>
<p>As an aside, how accurately did the PSAT predict the SAT performance in the exam taken in the spring? I am aware that the report from the College board makes some kind of prediction but I just want to know how good that prediction is in people's experience. </p>
<p>My sophomore is taking the PSAT with minimum prep and I'm wondering how much to rely on the "predicted SAT" in deciding whether to have her take the SAT next spring for the first time. The thought is that if she does well then she will have one less thing to worry about in junior year. Sure, she may re-take it to improve her score but who knows, if she gets an 800 in one of the three sections, it will be one less thing to prep for next year.</p>
<p>Knowing nothing about your sophomore's classroom experiences, it is hard to advise. However, my son took AP Lang his junior year, and at the beginning of the course, there was some practice writing essays of the sort the students would encounter on the standardized exams. If your daughter is slated to take classes as a junior that will help her out, then I see no need to rush.</p>
<p>For mine, SAT score was higher than that predicted by PSAT score but not excessively so. However, she had already taken old SAT in 7th grade to participate in a summer program and did prep with the blue book, so both of those factors might have accounted for the difference. She took the SAT in spring of junior year. Taking into account AP's, it is a lot of testing, but not unmanageable. She did take one SAT II before junior year, and I think that helped a bit. </p>
<p>It is hard to generalize, but I agree with midmo [Hi, there] that your daughter might be better off waiting until junior year. If she is going to take SAT II's, it might be worth considering taking one or two of those instead, particularly if she's taking the relevant class this year.</p>
<p>midmo, justanothermom, thanks for the advice. I see the reasons to wait until junior year for SATI and to instead maybe take an SATII. Another thing that occured to me is that even if she aces the SATI this year she will end up having to take it in junior year for the national merit competition (assuming she qualifies), isn't that right?</p>
<p>I'm not sure about the how far back they will accept an SAT I score. I think it is mentioned somewhere on the website that explains the PSAT program, though.</p>
<p>Thinking back on it, my son took two SAT II at the end of 10th grade, and that did lessen the total amount of testing he had to put up with as a junior. It worked well for him, because he took AP Bio in 10th, and had completed pre-calc in 10th, so the subject exams were timely.</p>
<p>Both S1 and S2 did better on tne SAT than PSAT (both scored in the 222-225range 9,10 and 11 but had perfect/near perfect SAT scores). I can't tell you why their PSAT scores stayed so consistent while the SAT score jumped, as neither prepped for anything. Maybe just all of those junior year AP classes.</p>
<p>OTOH, D1's 10th grade score increased dramatically (about 60 points) from
9th grade. I did ask her to do a practice test and we reviewed a few things last night for about 20 minutes, since she is close to commended cutoff. For the schools she'll be applying to, it might look nice on her apps if she can manage it. But it's not something I wanted her to stress over.</p>
<p>Hi, sewbusy, here's how to do the quote boxes. Type a square bracket ("[") followed by the word "quote" followed by a closing square bracket. Then copy-and-paste in the quoted text. Then end the quote box with a square bracket, slash, the word "quote" again, and a closing square bracket. If I type out the actual code here, the formatting is applied, but then you don't see the code. To show you an example, I'll fill in extra spaces where they don't belong in the code. </p>
<p>[ quote ]It's fun to quote on CC.[ / quote ] </p>
<p>If you remove the extra spaces, the above displays as </p>
<p>
[quote]
It's fun to quote on CC.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>It's also possible to attribute a quotation to the original poster, as in the code example below. </p>
<p>[ quote = Hamlet ]To be or not to be.[ / quote ] </p>
<p>With all extra spaces removed, that is </p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Somebody taught me this here on CC two years ago or more. A reference link about CC formatting can be found at </p>
<p>Our school pays for one test in 10th grade. We paid for 9th and 11th.
My D's scores went up nearly 10 points in each area between 10th and 11th.</p>
<p>"(which is why CB tells states to flag kids 30 points below their state's last year's cutoffs, I think.)"</p>
<p>What does this mean?</p>
<p>Oops, I should have said CB tells <em>schools</em> to flag kids 30 points below their state's last year's cutoffs, I think.</p>
<p>Which means that sometime in the late summer the schools are given a certain index score. If the state's national merit cutoff was, say 215, then the index is around 185 (or 30 points difference) and then schools can send out letters or have conferences or whatever with all the kids who scored 185 or better in 10th grade encouraging them to take the PSAT because they have a good chance of becoming commended, or possibly national merit semifinalists.</p>
<p>Answering my own question and to midmo: I checked the National Merit Scholarship website and found out that SAT exams taken from October of sophomore year until December of senior year are OK to fulfil their SAT requirement. So it is possible to just take the SAT once at the end of sophomore year and be done with it if you get a satisfactory score. I guess what we'll do is see how our sophomore does in the PSAT and use that as a guide.</p>
<p>Timely LA Times article: "After the first try, put those pencils down: Students who take the PSAT more than once are wasting their time, some say."</p>
<p>My S took the SAT at the end of sophomore year and, to our surprise, his GC advised him not to retake but to spend his time on other more worthwhile activities. He decided to re-take anyway. While I agree that the December of senior year cut-off test date is best, some colleges will still take scores from the January of senior year sitting - you have to check college websites to find out what the specific cut-off date is for each institution and then decide if it is worth the trouble to retake. Also, these days, many IHEs admonish test-takers NOT to send in scores using the "rush" option offered by the CB so it is important to pay attention to these details as well as the time-lines given.</p>
<p>This LA Times article is very misleading. The PSAT only counts for National Merit Corp when you take it in the 11th grade. In addition to Merit Scholar, the PSAT is the initial screening for many scholarships given to the children of corporate employees. That makes it wise for corporate kids, and kids in the NMF or National Achievement or National Hispanic range, to take the PSAT in the 10th grade for practice and to get the very detailed report from College Board on where their weaknesses are in order to put themselves in the best position to do well in the 11th grade when it counts. (These are full ride scholarships we are talking about in many cases.) This article make it sound as though PSAT/NMSQT and SAT are the same and they are not.</p>
<p>The article tries to address the perceived trend in "the high-pressure nature of the college admissions process" in which "students are increasingly taking test-prep courses for the PSAT" as well as taking the test more frequently while many of them are also dealing roughly at the same time with taking, and retaking the real deal SAT. </p>
<p>Here is a short excerpt from the LA Times article:</p>
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To prepare to take the PSAT again next year, and the SAT after that, the 15-year-old -- who hopes to attend UCLA or UC Berkeley -- said she plans on taking timed practice tests and reviewing her vocabulary and math skills.</p>
<p>Tsovinar Karapetyan said she might seek tutoring to prepare for the test before taking it again.</p>
<p>"It was very stressful, very nerve wracking," said the 15-year-old sophomore who hopes to attend USC and become a pediatrician...</p>
<p>"Parents have a real strong desire to make sure their kids are not put at a disadvantage in any way. People feel they are not doing enough for their child, which I think is wrong but I understand the emotion," said Keddie of Sage Hill.</p>
<p>"Test prep is big business and I think a lot of our students do it. We urge them to take the PSAT and the SAT one time before going into any kind of test prep, and we suggest they do [test prep] in the summer before their senior year so it doesn't interfere with classes or having an actual life."