Interesting we don’t see it in college board yet (we are in CA). I do see messages that many students got from their schools.
We are in CA and saw DS24’s score a couple of days ago in Cialfo (Naviance replacement in his school).
Looks like the school’s counseling system is directly connected to the college board and able to populate the data.
For a test he didn’t prepare at all, it wasn’t too bad. much to improve but a reasonable start.
My S21 got a booklet where he wrote in some info. D has her first AP in spring but the school said we register for that later.
We got an email from college board (parent and student) saying that D24’s results will be 12/7.
For those of you who have first born ‘24’s, try not to pin a lot of expectations on this PSAT. It’s probably their first sit down test, right? Probably didn’t study it like it was a big important college entrance exam. I always felt that the PSAT scores are lower than what the kids could get on the SATs (from 20 data points?). And your kiddo may dislike the PSAT/SAT and thrive better with the ACT.
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Surprising, for us AP registration last day was in September or October.
us too, had to sign up through our town in september which is always annoying since you dont know if the kid will do well enough in the course at that point. This is my first time having a sophmore take an AP since our school only lets them take AP world as a sort of self study.
I think it’s because they are on the block schedule.
Ah that makes sense.
True this first AP my son is also taking and you have no idea how they will do but have to sign up so early in the year.
I was incorrect in my assumption, it was Naviance that my son the results not college board.
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@MommaLue Definitely that’s how I feel about S24’s result. Without any prep (other than 1 practice exam a couple of days before the test), he did ok but lower than what I thought he could.
how did your older kids decide whether to take SAT or ACT?
Looking at the practice test and PSAT result, I see a pattern that S24 does better on reading > math > writing. He makes too many silly mistakes in math and he clearly needs grammar work.
Taking it unprepped is best! There is an SAT /ACT correlation table that can help you predict. Hopefully someone can link it. You need a practice ACT too, to make the comparison. Our school has 10th graders do that too, and the college counselor guides which test to start with and how/when to prep. But you can look it all up yourself if you do not have a helpful college counseling office.
@i_am_taxed At the advice of my cousin who does college prep, we found an old SAT and ACT test. An actual one and not a practice one (I never feel like the practice ones really reflect the real exams). One weekend we had my son sit and take the SAT and then the next day he sat and took the old ACT test. I think going in cold turkey (he had taken just the PSAT in 10th grade), he got 1350 on the SAT and a 32 on the ACT.
He doesn’t like English and the SAT English passages can be horrendous—a paragraph of the Houston Constitution. Really?! Anyway, ACT was more straight forward to him on the English part. Reading, Science, and Math are his jams, so the ACT was better suited for him. The downside to the ACT is that you get about 1.3-1.7 seconds less to answer each question. If your kid likes to hem and haw, it will be a struggle.
It is an investment of time for a kid to sit down and take two of those tests for fun, but my son was really determined since he didn’t have a perfect GPA. He knew he needed the test scores to get any consideration ticket into the schools he desired. Make sure your kid is in the mindset for a practice test. Once they get there, it won’t be so painful.
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Thanks for the info @MommaLue we have never had our son try the ACT. He has done a couple of SAT and his Math is very good for a 10th Grade and his toughest part of is the reading part. Did not know reading ACT may be easier. Will have to ask him to try. Time is not an issue for my son especially on the Math. He always has 10 to 15 minutes left on the Math sections.
@2Devils is this the one you mean? https://www.act.org/content/dam/act/unsecured/documents/ACT-SAT-Concordance-Tables.pdf
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@RadM I hope it’s an option for your son. I never even thought of the ACT because growing up, SAT was more prevalent. I was just glad that someone directed us to check it out. My son’s reading comprehension is strong but for some reason the English part of SAT always tripped him. He took the actual test only once and the only other practice he had was that PSAT and the old 2015 SAT. He may have been ok with SAT but S21 has a knack for deselecting things and he never really gave SAT a true try. I’m just glad colleges don’t really care about the writing score on the ACT. I think he got an 8 and then a 6.
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Another recommendation to try both tests but I’d do a times test at home and nothing official. You don’t want to raise red flags for the testing agency for a big jump in score. And, a few schools still require all scores to be submitted. My D did the same on both but lots of her friends had a strong preference for one over the other.
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On other threads there was mention of a service that has your kid do parts of each test and then they make a suggestion of which to take. Just taking both and scoring it sounds time consuming for all involved but probably more helpful. We never did this for my older one but it looks interesting! will give it a try!
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Our school requires that students taking AP courses sit for the exams. They absorb the fees, but if your kid bails for some reason, you are on the hook to reimburse the district.
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