<p>My son is currently a Semi-finalist and received a 215 on his PSAT. However, when he took the SAT in November (2013), he received an 1840. </p>
<p>Is there any chance that College Board will still consider him for Finalist standing? Most of his schedule encompasses AP & IB courses and has a 3.95 (unweighted) gpa. His extracurriculars are exemplary as well. Also, I do not have any reason to believe that his principal and/or teachers would write him a bad recommendation.</p>
<p>In short, his school activities support the fact that he is a Semi-finalist. I am worried that his SAT score will keep him from being a Finalist.</p>
<p>Please respond! A lot is riding on my son receiving Finalist status.</p>
<p>You should register him for the 12/7 SAT. Monday is the deadline to reegister online. It’s late and have to pay extra, but it’s worth it. NMSC accepts the Dec. SAT</p>
<p>^^ Do that and use the time between now and then to take practice tests. Focus on the areas he was weakest in, but don’t neglect the others. Last time she took the SAT, my daughter gained about 70 points on one test, but lost just as many on another. OK for superscores, but her net increase was maybe 10 points. I suspect she took her strongest area for granted, and your son can’t do that, since you have a lot of points to gain.</p>
<p>Also, you know that for the writing part of SAT you use MC score X 10, not the actual writing score that incorporates the essay? But he would have had to have a really really bad essay for this difference to give the 120 point boost he needs. That is why I didn’t mention it in the other post.</p>
<p>He doesn’t need 300 points. A 1960 is good enough, and that without any lost points from essay.</p>
<p>LYTHAITO…Your son does not need a 300+ point increase. In order to achieve a “confirming” SAT score he needs to get at least a 1960 using the formula of M+CR+(10 x Writing Multiple Choice sub-score). Note that the actual writing score is not used; you’ll have to drill down into the “Understanding My Score” portion of his score report to see his MC sub-score. Don’t look at the number of MC questions he got correct…look for a 2-digit sub-score and multiply it by 10.</p>
<p>I agree that he needs to re-take it, especially since you mentioned the importance of making Finalist. An 1840 won’t allow him to advance to Finalist status. The confirming score has been 1960 for the last several years at least, including last year when scores rose 3 or more points in many states. Have him focus on whichever section he struggled with the most given the short time frame, but he only needs a 120-ish point increase to hit the mark. Good Luck to him!!</p>
<p>An increase of this magnitude is very possible if your son did little or no prep work before the previous test. Doing a bunch of practice tests now could really make a difference.</p>
<p>OTOH, if he already did a lot of prep work, then a better score might come down to luck. In my experience, there’s more variation from test to test than the testing companies like to admit.</p>
<p>If he was able to manage a 215 when he was a year younger, then the 1840 sounds like it could be just a bad day. Make sure he gets enough sleep the night before and eats something that morning and tell him not to sweat the essay on this try, in case that is something that gets him nervous. If you are anxious about it, try not to let it show too much so it won’t rub off on him and affect his performance if he’s that type of kid.</p>
<p>I don’t know his score breakdown, but the writing score is the easiest to raise quickly. Do a couple practice tests and you’ll see if there are some basic grammar facts he’s forgotten and can brush up on. I don’t know what kind of practice materials you have handy, but analyzing errors on practice tests is very helpful. There are materials that grade practice tests in a way that sorts answers by problem type to make the analysis easier. Make sure he isn’t guessing unless he can eliminate some answers he knows are wrong. It’s OK to leave blanks, the right thing to do in that case since he’s penalized for wrong answers. Tell him to be liberal with pencil in crossing out wrong answers to make it easier to focus on what’s left. Elimination is a fine way to get to the right answer. Be aware of standard tricks and read carefully when the word ‘not’ is used. Stuff like that. For CR vocab is important, but hard to learn a lot in 2 weeks. There are some shorter SAT vocab lists that have most common words he might take a look at.</p>
<p>CR - 570
Math - 740
Writing (MC) - 56 x 10 = 560</p>
<p>I agree with you all for him to focus on his vocabulary and grammar rules. The only materials we have are the Official SAT book from College Board. Are there any useful websites (preferably free) that can provide additional practice and/or study materials?</p>
<p>My son liked Erica Meltzer’s book. I am not really sure how much he used any book, but he did take countless practice tests, and that helped a great deal. Since the goal is achieving a confirming score, the MC of W should be easier to impact than the CR. If he has not completed each of the practice tests in CB’s blue book, I would start there, ignoring M sections entirely. Do have him sit for a full-length practice test tomorrow and two next weekend, and have him look up his errors. </p>
<p>One other thought is the Testive website. I have not looked at it in a while, but it used to allow registered users to answer ten questions/day, free of charge. Given his limited time, he may just be better off plowing through the CB practice tests.</p>
<p>If he is thinking of going to one the schools that give crazy money for NMF then I would shut everything else down and prepare for the test, including helping him prepare. Ignore Math with that previous score it is doubtful he will increase much.</p>
<p>Problem with my kids is they always want to do the math sections since those are fun. And when they agree to do the CR and writing, it’s like pulling teeth to get them to go back and understand their errors. But that is what makes the difference and gets you better scores. I used to say just doing the tests and looking at your score is not helpful when you don’t know what you did wrong. With Blue Book you don’t get answer explanations like you do in their subject test book. So we look together at the missed problems. For writing it’s easy to figure out what the mistake is and we keep a grammar book handy to look up the relevant stuff to be sure we understand correctly. For CR, if it isn’t vocab, but interpreting passages, it can be tricky to figure out, especially when mom and kid are both better at math than CR, but usually we can get it. I don’t think my son would ever o that analysis on his own, though, with no explanation to look at. </p>
<p>My D only took SAT once. Her initial practice score was pretty similar to your son’s score in all sections. In 3 weeks of practice before the test, mostly Blue Book, but also read Barrons 2400 for encouragement and strategy tips, she managed to completely master the writing and improved the CR a lot to get a very good score.I hear Xiggi’s SAT thread here on CC somewhere is very good but never looked at it.</p>
<p>Unfortunately in this case, my son is only able to properly study when he is alone. I will not be able to sit down and effectively guide him through some of the trickier problems. What suggestions should I give to him for self-studying the SAT?</p>
<p>Take the practice tests and review his incorrect or guessed responses. If he can’t learn using that approach, and he can only study properly when alone, and you do not want to hire a tutor, I am not sure what else can be suggested.</p>
<p>I’m not sure what you mean. If you are saying he is really tense and things fall apart when you work together because he feels pressured and gets angry, then it depends on if he’s willing to accept help with no personal interaction from you or not.</p>
<p>You could go through the tests afterwards, look at the errors and write something up that explains the mistake in his thinking and why the correct answer is correct, for him to look at later on his own. That seems convoluted, but I remember a phase one of my kids went through when working together did not go well. </p>
<p>It depends on how important this is to you. For us, the NMF part of D’s scholarship saves us over $25K/yr, though I couldn’t have known that at the time she was practicing for SAT. But that sure would have been pretty motivating for me to get involved more.</p>
<p>You could use materials that have answer explanations, like Princeton Review, Kaplan, Barrons. We only used that kind of thing for the strategy, tips, and studying material that needed review. For actual practice tests, I like the CB blue book because it’s real SAT questions. We looked at practice tests from other books, but too often we’d find that the answers given didn’t offer a clear correct choice, were ambiguously worded, etc. After wasting all kinds of time on trying to understand it, so infuriating. The testing companies have a hard time matching the CB questions exactly. They do try, but they can’t quite get it.</p>
<p>Ask for explanations of questions in the SAT prep section of College Confidential. He can either copy the question or ask about question 16 on test 3 in the Blue Book. Someone will help your son understand. </p>
<p>My daughter improved from a 2100 SAT to a 228 PSAT score in a week, just taking 4 practice tests and understanding why her answers were right and wrong. Your son can improve enough in 2 weeks if he wants to.</p>
<p>Also get him a copy of Direct Hits to learn vocabulary. It is fun and easy to read and the words will stick in his memory.</p>
<p>CB also has one free practice test which you can do online or get a printed version and then enter answers online. Didn’t know about this. It looks like the printed version is the sort of booklet that might be in stacks in GC office, though we only have ACT type at our HS. You can also download and print it from CB if your S prefers to do paper/pencil test and can’t get it at school. After you finish entering answers you get access to detailed answer explanations. Have to show this to S.</p>
<p>LYTHAITO - SAT critical reading Barrons red book is very good guide. it ranges from basic to high complex passages. Reading and Writing workout from Princeton Review is very good too. ask him to take as many practice timed tests from these two books and then take actual real tests from Official blue book, he should be fine for December test .</p>