DS is going to take the SAT in June 2019 as baseline. He needs this as ‘wake up call’ / motivation to actually do some prep over the summer.
Then will take again in Oct or Nov of 2019 along with ACT. At that point if he may take one more either SAT or ACT (I think he’ll know by then which he is focused on ) over winter/early Spring of '20 (Junior year) and hopefully be done!
That’s the plan at least – subject to change!
I’m loving the WakeUp call idea. D21 got one yesterday with her PSAT results. Said she figured she didn’t need to study. Well… that sure didn’t work. English/Writing went from 550 to 640 but Math went down 10pts. Granted last year was PSAT 8/9 and this was the real one. But still… CRAZY
I’m afraid to have D21 take a “wake-up” or “baseline” test because I’ve read that if you improve by too many points, you get flagged for cheating and it’s impossible to appeal.
I feel like D21 is the kind of math student that will do much better with prep and tutoring, so she might go up enough to get accused.
Does anyone else have knowledge of this?
DS never saw the point of a baseline test. He felt that if he were going to take it he wanted to prepare and try to get it over with. He did take it in 7th grade though but did some small prep at that stage.
I have also read some disturbing threads on kids being flagged for cheating but do not know of anyone that this has happened to in our area. The Khan Academy full tests are actual tests that were given. If anyone wants to do a baseline, just do those.
Wow that’s very concerning considering our school district here in N Calif administers the test starting in 7th grade. So it would be the schools fault for any “baseline” issues. Not sure what to say about that. Strange they would do it knowing it could cause issues. Actually it’s optional for 11th graders. They have to actually pay if they want to take the PSAT again for Merit. Which could be a reason there are so few that ever get it out of the entire district. They just never take it again after 10th grade.
@3SailAway I have only heard of this in regard to the ACT (here on College Confidential forums) and not the SAT.
@JanieWalker, I think it’s rare to be accused of cheating on either test, but I’m anxious about it anyway! D21 was accused of cheating by “stealing” an idea from cliffs notes on a homework assignment. The idea was a character observation that is commonly discussed about this novel. Even though the teacher realized that she had overreacted and apologized to D21, it was emotionally awful.
Our D19 took a Khan Academy test before studying. That worked out well for her to know where she was and set a goal to work towards.
I’m curious - why would you have your kids study for the PSAT? I understand the junior year is for NMF, but sophomore year I told D21 not to stress it and not to study. She’ll prep for the SAT, which she’ll probably do August 2019 since she’s in Alg2 this year, which will help for the junior year PSAT as well. I didn’t see a reason to stress her out over this year’s PSAT.
@NJWrestlingmom I completely agree. The sophomore PSAT doesn’t count for anything and test prepping too early can result in test fatigue by the time it counts. Our S19 got a 1340 on his soph PSAT. Didn’t study. Studied for the SAT over the summer before junior year. Got a 1540 on the August SAT and is a NMSF. Studying during the summer killed two birds with one stone. No need to study any earlier.
@homerdog My son’s experience is pretty similar to yours and he decided not to do any prep for the PSAT this year when he took it to gauge how much he might need to prepare next year as it will count as a junior.
I imagine there are quite a few kids that are not at the same level as our kids were/are, for various reasons. In those cases, I can certainly see a need to prep and take it in 10th to see how far you have come and how far is left to study to get your desired SAT or PSAT score.
@EGHopeful College Board wouldn’t flag any scores compared to a seventh grade test. Test taken through freshman year don’t ever have to be sent to colleges, even the ones that require all scores. Same goes for ACT.
As for taking a baseline test, I wouldn’t do that. One can take a practice test on their own or go to a local Princeton Review tutoring center and take it for free. Our local library even does them for free through a private tutoring service. Even though I don’t think flagging scores is happening all that much, there’s no reason to go to (and pay for ) an actual test. Plus, taking one blind with no prep won’t result in anything helpful. Kids have to look over the format and do a few practice problems at the very least to get a score that might tell you anything.
Both of our kids took the ACT and SAT in middle school for Northwestern’s gifted program and S19 hated the ACT. It was just too fast for him and he was annoyed that it seemed easy but he had to learn to move quickly. He preferred the SAT so we just went with that. D21 isn’t sure. I’m going to have her take a practice ACT (just here! at home from the red book!) and see what she thinks of the timing and the questions. We may even do that as early as this Christmas break. She’s taken the PSAT since eighth grade so she knows what the SAT format looks like.
My guess is that she will also prefer the SAT so the plan will be to study over the summer. If, though, she wants to focus on the ACT, she will study for it this summer and take it in the fall. We may not even bother with PSAT studying as I don’t see her being a NMSF and we wouldn’t use the big scholarships anyway. S19 is a NMSF and the most any of the schools give on his college list is $2000/year.
I didn’t have D21 prep for this year’s PSAT at all – she had already taken two AP exams and an SAT2 at the end of freshman year, she’s going to have to take 4AP exams and 2 more SAT2 exams at the end of this year, plus the SAT at the end of this coming summer and then AP exams at the end of junior year etc…I wanted her to not worry about this year’s PSAT but to just take it for practice anyway. (Since she homeschools, good scores on as many standardized tests as she doesn’t mind taking can only help when it comes to college admissions.) This was the one test she could just walk in and take and not worry at all about the score. My feeling is that she will do fairly well and discover where she needs to put her efforts for when she studies for the next go-around. I did want her to take it for practice this year so she knows what the test will feel like when she takes it “for real.” Her PSAT test prep next year will just be studying for the actual SAT.
@homerdog Ahhh gotcha. That makes sense stated that way. Yes my daughter did zero prep for any tests she’s ever taken. The schools required them to take those or those normal state tests. Parents could opt out. The only real prep she will do is this summer for SAT and if that works for the PSAT, Bonus. If not… so be it. School work is enough and I like that she has a starting point and it won’t be like me when I was in school. The first time I ever saw the PSAT or SAT tests were the ONE time I took them and bombed. Didn’t know retakes were an option back then. D21 will NOT be as unfortunate.
S18 didn’t study for testing, took PSAT, 10&11(school sponsored, got commended), SAT and ACT once each. He did fine, good enough I’ll say. Honestly, he didn’t study much for regular tests either. D21 just got PSAT scores, 700 English,580 math. I suggested to her she do some prep for math, but I won’t make her. We’ll see what’s what over the summer.
Super happy this AM:
PSAT 1480 720/760 (SI 220) unprepped. NMF is within striking distance next year. Very, Very worth prepping for. She missed 2 in reading and 5 in writing. This is HUGE for us as AUTO Merit chasers.
of note, This correlates with her Nov SAT 1510 (720/790).
Pulling for all our kiddos!
DS took the Aug SAT and scored a 1550 750/800, his school then gave the PSAT which he took and his SI is 224 or 1500 740/760…hopefully he can do as well next year when it counts. Good luck to all!!
@yearstogo, Those are incredible scores. Bravo to your DS!!!
It really is amazing how different siblings can be…
D19 took PSAT 2x with no prep (10th/11th) and scored 1110 both times. She took a 2-day crash course the weekend before the SAT and scored a 1350 which was enough for her - she was done. Applied in Aug to her first choice school, was accepted September 13th (with great merit). Deposit paid. No stress senior year. Awesome!!
Now, S21 just took the PSAT and is disappointed with his score received today - 1350. “I got like 14 questions wrong”. He’s so hard on himself. I’m am going to dread the next 2.5 years. D19 was easy with the college stuff but I looks like S21 is going to be a nightmare.
@eb23282, I hear you on siblings being so different. It’s not fair for us parents because we figure out how to deal with and guide the one, and then it doesn’t work on the other!
D19 was fairly straight forward. Happy with her first SAT score, began leaning ED in June, decided ED for sure in September, applied November 1st, and is now done. There was plenty of anxiety, but it was a manageable process. D21 is totally different, and I’m bracing myself because I think we’re going to go through the wringer. I plan to try to soak up the rest of this time before she is a Junior and we have to start for real.
@Sailaway you nailed it. At least I’ll know I’m not alone when I’m banging my head on the wall next year 