Parents of the HS Class of 2016 (Part 1)

<p>@mysonsdad my daughter does not seem to feel like the program has been very customized for her. BUT, that could be her just being overly grumpy at this point.</p>

<p>S just got done taking a practice test and his score went down 200 points from 2 weeks ago. He did say he didn’t skip as many problems as 2 weeks ago so that may be the problem, I guess.</p>

<p>I do not understand the fluctuations of scores either. It seems that now we are lower when we started.</p>

<p>I’m guessing that PrepScholar assigns lessons based on the progress of skills mastered not on the practice SAT scores. Also there are about the same number of math skills as CR and Writing combined. Once you master a skill it doesn’t assign any more lessons for that area, if someone is doing well in the math section of the practice test they should be able to knock out the PrepScholar lessons for that area very quickly. Another thought is that math is an easier subject to prep for so maybe they figure mastering math first has the best chance of increasing the over all score??? My d has taken four practice test so far and there has been some variance but I think averaging the scores helps tell where she is really functioning. I hate the way the CB curves the tests, one test she missed one math problem and still scored 800 but another she missed one math problem and scored 780 and yet another she missed two and got a 750 - very frustrating!</p>

<p>@AsleepAtTheWheel - that explains why I saw a few OU shirts at HEB today! (a ubiquitous grocery store here in TX) No worries, she won’t be near a football crowd this weekend, but thanks for the warning!</p>

<p>@3scoutsmom‌ this curve was on the actual test, correct? The PrepScholar does not curve.</p>

<p>Curves for past tests are available online if anyone’s interested.</p>

<p>S14 had one wrong answer on the Math section, and got a 760. That’s about as low a score as one can get with a single wrong answer. Didn’t matter in the end, but still . . . .</p>

<p>I have to help my DD sit down and schedule time for test prep. It’s not going to happen unless hours are booked in advance. </p>

<p>@seal16 prepscholar uses the curve on the official practice tests out of the Blue Book as established by the College Board. I am certain of this because I had conversation with them about how D could miss a question and still get an 800 on a section. They don’t use a curve on their own skill section tests - those scores are just reported as a percent of correct answers. If you scroll down on the “progress page” to see the practice tests scores at the very bottom of the page it says:</p>

<p>“Note: Because the SAT score chart may represent a range instead of a specific score, what is shown here are your average expected scores. Your actual score on the SAT may vary as much as 40 points in both directions for each section, meaning your total score may vary as much as 120 points in both directions.”</p>

<p>The score chart is based on the curve for that particular test.</p>

<p>ouch! @AsleepAtTheWheel 40 points off for one wrong answer had to sting!</p>

<p>@3scoutsmom‌ I was also thinking that prepscholar may have figured master math first. On his last practice test two weeks ago he got a 760, last night I think he said a 660 (give or take 20 points). </p>

<p>Well, one SAT down. PSATs are Wednesday. He seemed pretty confident after today’s test, so that’s hopeful.</p>

<p>S’16 took the SAT 2 Math 2 today. He thinks he did well on it. The rest of the day has been spent vegging out on the computer. No school here Monday or Tuesday. He is skipping the PSAT on Wednesday since he has little hope of hitting the cut off for our state’s NMSF. </p>

<p>Both of mine are doing PSATs, though D16 will probably not make the cut-off and S16 is only a “kinda-maybe-sorta-possible”. S is at a band event this afternoon and will not be home before midnight. LONG day.</p>

<p>@petrichor11‌, @Dragonflygarden‌
Congrats. Am jealous that your kids have those tests under their belts. </p>

<p>I screwed up! I thought I had registered D to take a proctored PSAT today. The on-line registration process was confusing so I even called to confirm but when she got there today she was told she wasn’t registered! I looked back at the reminder email and it turns out I had registered her for the Saturday test and she missed it! All the seats were full today since this is the last proctored test they give before the real PSAT. UGH! Well at least she got in the one proctored practice test last week. She’s doing the practice test they gave out in school at the kitchen table as I type so I don’t know what, if anything at all, she plans to do for more prep. At least now she won’t have to take that practice test at her brother’s fencing club:-)</p>

<p>D took practice test last night. She had one mistake on math section. The given number was a diameter and she used it as a radius. And this is typical for her. She knows the material and makes this type of mistakes. Do not know what to do with her.</p>

<p>S16’s comments about the SAT: math was easy, there was only one question he didn’t answer and that was because it took too long and he never got back to it. Writing was fine except time ended when he had “two more words to write and one word was important” (whatever that means). And it sounds like he could use some more practice with vocabulary before Wednesday’s PSATs.</p>

<p>It’s working!!! My DS spent some time with a teammate who is a senior (applying to some great schools) and now my DS is bringing up college stuff on his own. I thought that he might come around to this whole process slowly so we started touring campuses on the early side. Now that he has seen a few campuses and compared a few programs he can talk to the seniors that he looks up to about how and why they have selected schools they are applying to. It is all so much more real to him now. I am so happy to NOT be the only source of college conversation in his life! :-bd </p>

<p>@petrichor11 – FWIW, S14 had a half-sentence left to write on his SAT writing essay when he ran out of time. He got a 10 out of 12 on that essay. Your son’s not finishing the essay shouldn’t hurt his score too much (based on S14’s experience, and lots of reading/homework I did on this question at the time).</p>

<p>1st SAT done! PSAT on Saturday. D16 said SAT was “okay.” Hard to evaluate the meaning of that. She seems to feel confident about the math. She promises me that she will continue to review for PSAT which is Saturday. She is terribly resentful about PSAT right now, because it is causing her to miss a race that she desperately wanted to do.</p>

<p>Glad that the wait for this SAT won’t be so long. The wait for the PSAT scores is going to be painful (not to mention the wait for cut off scores afterwards. Whyyyyyy?!!)</p>

<p>D16 is taking the PSAT on the 29th at school. The county essentially shuts down this week for a festival in the next town over. They’re off W-F and some schools are off the whole week. She’s taking ACT boot camp now. I’m not sure how the test being later affects when we see the scores–what is the turn around for that, anyway @AKFirefly ?</p>

<p>Her marching band commitment is slowly winding down–just a few more weeks thank goodness. It’s a lot. They marched at a competition at Ohio State this past weekend. I never thought I’d get to see a kid of our play a solo in the 'Shoe. They took 4th over all beating some AA schools, but 9 am to midnight is a lot on a 16 year old. </p>

<p>Anyone started thinking about resumes for college apps? </p>