<p>How would you use an 8th grader's 144/150 Cogat composite or Explorer score of 25/25 to predict ACT/SAT scores in junior year? He got 1800 on SAT in 7th and 215 on practice PSAT. What should we expect for test scores college admissions? First semester's scores in 9th are between 96-100 in honors and a single AP course. Do you recommend SAT prep sch</p>
<p>@WorryHurry411, don’t be in such a hurry to worry. He’s got two years before he takes the PSAT that “counts” and by then the test is going to change anyway. He sounds like a very bright kid. Let him do his thing and enjoy high school and don’t worry about all of this stuff at this point.</p>
<p>Thank you for the zen advice but please answer my questions as well.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t try to predict. More kids burn out from too much parental pressure about test scores than make NMSF. </p>
<p>Kids normally go up about 100 points/year just based on maturity; that puts him at 2200 SAT if he stays on track. Since NMSF requires almost all correct answers, he will still need to study for it, not get sick, not have anything traumatic happen. My kids’ math scores actually dropped in 11th grade because they were in AP Calc and losing the math skills tested on the PSAT.</p>
<p>@WorryHurry411 - my advice - Don’t worry, don’t hurry, just let your kid be a kid. Encourage them to love knowledge and learning, but don’t worry about test scores, and let the dice fall as they may. As @Periwinkle says, pushing kids to achieve to a high level based on parental expectations is liable to backfire.</p>
<p>Making NMSF in the more competitive states doesn’t leave much room for error. More than about 5 questions wrong on the entire test will knock your child out of contention. The very last thing you want is for your kid to walk into the test that day after a sleepless night feeling the anxiety and stress of years of parental breathing down his back. You may be trying to help but pushing your child too hard really can backfire. </p>
<p>No, I wouldn’t push a 9th grader into test prep school. In fact, I wouldn’t recommend it at all for a potential NMS. Your child will be better off focusing on classes and developing interests than sitting in SAT prep classes that will be aimed at lower achieving kids and peddling “tricks” instead of teaching how to solve the problem, because they think that’s too hard for their students.</p>
<p>My approach was to tell my child about the scholarship and that I thought she had a good chance to win it. I got her a test prep book in the summer after 9th grade and asked her to make a plan to work through it that summer. I’d say she spent 3-4 hours per week when we were in town working on it. I wasn’t looking over her shoulder at her scores on practice tests. I don’t even know whether she finished the book, though she was supposed to. But I know that was plenty of prep, starting more than enough time in advance, because she got an NMSF qualifying score as a sophomore. She didn’t do much during the year, did some SAT prep over the next summer, though I think less seriously. It was somewhat more difficult to motivate her when she already had a good score. All I could say is how will you feel if you can’t match it, just keep your skills up. And she did.</p>
<p>Oh, and I can’t give you any early scores to compare with. I kept my child away from these tests until the summer after 9th grade. I know she did pretty well on the practice tests she was doing but I don’t know what the scores were. The main focus was on understanding what she got wrong, not on obsessing over practice test scores. Focus on learning, not on success or failure at making a cut off.</p>
<p>Somewhere around here there was once a thread which compared kids 7th grade test scores with their 11th grade ones (and PSATs as well I think). My recollection was that generally kids who scored in the 500s in 7th grade, scored in the high 600s to low 700s in 11th, those who scored in the mid 600s generally scored in the 700s. The kids who scored in the high 600s generally scored in the mid 700s on up, but there was a lot of variation and one kid who’d done spectacularly well actually went down, though they still had an excellent score. Probably the best predictor is what percentile your kid scores on these tests. The NMF cut-off is around the top 4% so if your kid regularly is above that he’s probably got a decent chance. My kid with high 600 scores in 7th grade, scored well above the NYS NMF cutoff. My kid with 7th grade scores in the low 500s was a commended student. Neither kid studied at all in 7th grade, and they didn’t study much more when they were older.</p>
<p>I agree with others that he doesn’t need to prep for the SAT now, and probably never will. Our experience agrees with that of @Magnetron: a smart kid will “mature” by 100+ points per year. SAT 1200 (old system) in 8th grade NUMATS turned into SAT 1570 and NMSF 11th grade. High enough for any purpose, without any prep or practice or need to repeat the exam. (Besides there are a lot of other tests to think about.)</p>
<p>Bottom line: the kid needn’t waste time on test prep (least of all now) and instead can spend time on other things including courses and EC’s, and including things that have intrinsic interest or are particularly enjoyable to him.</p>
<p>My son never did any preparation for any of these. His school makes everyone take these tests, we didn’t even know the scores. I was asked by the counselor to come for yearly meeting and look at the student progress account before meeting. He wrote that your kid scored 212 in PSAT and this is what NMSF cutoff so he is a shoo in and school may offer him some preparation help. </p>
<p>*215</p>
<p>@WorryHurry411, what are you trying to accomplish for your son? What is the goal here exactly?</p>
<p>I think you are putting the cart before the horse. There is no such thing as “shoo-in.” Your kiddo still needs to show and do well on the day when it really matters. Not sure what your end game is as @suzy100 pointed out. </p>
<p>If your child scored an 1800 as a 7th grade, which is equivalent to a 180 on the PSAT, then I would say that by the time he’s a junior, he should be scoring 220+.</p>
<p>but relax. He doesn’t need to prep now. He sounds like a naturally good test taker. </p>
<p>if he’s scoring well w/o prep, don’t push him. If he thrives on excelling he’ll do fine by himself. For our son, test prep was anathema and if we had insisted it probably would have soured him on all test taking. He progressed on his own from doing very well in the 7th grade SAT for Duke Tip all the way to NMSF.</p>
<p>“The NMF cut-off is around the top 4%” Maybe in the lowest cut-off states. But in high cut-off states you need to be well above the 99 percentile. The OP should look up historical cut-offs for their state. There’s a big difference if you’re allowed to miss 15 or so questions and still qualify, or if you can only miss 5.</p>
<p>How does the student feel about all this?</p>
<p>The NMF cutoff is often the top ONE PERCENT. Unless you’re in a really low scoring state, the cutoff is going to be top 1 percent…maybe top 2 percent.</p>
<p>My son got an ACT 28 in the 7th grade for Duke TIP. He naturally progressed and was a NMF. </p>
<p>PSAT cut-offs for NMSF that I have seen over the years have varied, but I believe the highest cut-off I have ever seen is 225 for American boarding schools abroad, and the lowest I have seen is 200 for one or two of the states in the US (and not every year). Historically, a score of 224 will generally qualify for NMSF in every state, even the most competitive. Highly competitive states tend to include Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Maryland, Virginia, and California. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list! And there is some variation in cut-offs among the states listed. (New Jersey and other states may also belong on the list of highly competitive states.) The cut-off score for NMSF falls between 215 and 220 in a broad range of states.</p>
<p>I agree with the people who do not recommend SAT prep classes–with the scores that the original poster mentioned, and the age of the student, the student is beyond the great majority of the suggestions that SAT prep courses can provide. </p>
<p>The best advice to this student: Take the standardized tests that the school offers routinely to all students. About 6 months before the PSAT, sign up for the SAT question of the day service. I think this is one question per day (no one in my family used it). When the PSAT rolls around, answer the questions. Done! </p>
<p>My end game is for him to get recognition for his efforts and chance to attend a college where students are his intellectual peers. I think good teachers and colleagues open up a new world to an intelligent mind. He likes to keep a balance between learning and fun but enjoys competiton and wants to try for Ivy. </p>
<p>Most of his friends are doing SAT prep since 7th grade because of TIP, we were thinking that we are depriving him but thanks for putting the things into perspective. He is a first generation college bound person so we are very naive.</p>