Parents of the HS Class of 2025

The bluebook App has at least one PSAT on there now. When my D took it yesterday it asked if she wanted SAT or PSAT. She had been doing strictly paper tests and said the digital was way easier.

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But wasn’t her score in the same range?

She did 40 points better on the PSAT in just the raw number. The real test will be when she takes her next practice SAT. Not sure if she’ll have time for that before the official PSAT though.

Thanks for the suggestion. She was supposed to be able to when she took a UMass class, but they declined her request. I think if she had fought it she would have won, but she didn’t. At that point she was pretty dejected and decided to just try to remove herself from the meal plan completely. She had a couple of friends who had more trouble than she did, but she got removed pretty easily. The main thing is that they want you to have given it a try. She had met with someone high up in dining, and the head chef. A few times. So she was putting in the effort.

She should go over there sometime though, and just pay for a meal. I assume that is possible for non-students. She seems to have a better attitude about it this semester. It still stinks, but we worked this summer on figuring out some easy recipies and other strategies to make it less onerous.

also, her practice digital PSAT score was 200 points higher than the paper one she took last year. The math did get harder in the 2nd section but the English was so much easier which she was happy about.

I don’t think a 200pt jump from 10th - 11th is too crazy. My kids improved a lot between those years. Particularly if they hadn’t completed Algebra 2.

I don’t know if the English is easier but I think overall it does feel that way since they got rid of the long passages.

The plan is for my D to take one practice digital test before the PSAT.

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On the flip side, my son took algebra 2 in 7th grade and consequently has not seen much change in score since then. Just 10-20 pts per year and that’s mostly in the reading section.

If he took Alg 2 in 7 grade (and the PSAT?) I assume he is extremely high achieving. Like everything, the higher the score, the harder it is to make gains.

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My kid isn’t taking the SAT/ACT til the next couple months, but if the issues faced in the first couple weeks of DE Calc I are anything to go by (read: the review part was really, really difficult, and then hitting the actual “new” material has been kind of a relief), I’m kind of expecting a low-ish (that is, low for a highly advanced math student—high but not in the 7x0 range) math score just because of what’s been forgotten since then, because you don’t need all of that stuff later on.

But also something that is easily refreshed by doing a little test prep on khan academy.

I believe you argued quite strongly against the value of summer work.

Not sure I get your point here.

Only that I see value in putting in a small amount of work during the summer to avoid forgetting what you learned and then the review part wouldn’t be “really, really difficult.”

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I still have severe ethical concerns (mostly related to equity) with required summer work.

Also, note please that this is a DE class. College classes do not, by design, include work during the term before they start.

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She was in pre-calc last year. :slight_smile:

DS won’t be able to take the PSAT. It’s the same day as his JROTC Raiders competition. Oh well, he got a digital practice test in, even if it crashed on the last question and he never got scores. And chances of National Merit were slim, he’s not been testing high enough on practices.

We gave up on D25 testing for PSAT. Her school doesn’t offer it, and no other local schools I spoke with (public or private) are willing to let her test with their students. So…we move on.

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D25 is struggling a bit with workload/ADHD/Anxiety. She has quit her job, and her teachers are all being understanding and letting her get caught up without punishing her for getting behind. But I haven’t even mentioned the PSAT in the last month. She was unlikely to score high enough anyway, so we are letting it go.

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We finally heard back about NHS today. D25 is in. They sent invites to about 50 people, 40 applied and 30 got in. They changed things up a bit this year and were much more selective than in years past when almost everyone got in that applied.

Workload is pretty tough here. D25 hasn’t had much time to get any PSAT practice in. I think she had 1 day out of the last 7 that she got practice in.

Calculus is hard for D25. She is very good at match and Calc is the first one she’s had to really work at. Super proud of her first test score though!

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No PSAT here. Hopefully, no SAT, either. :crossed_fingers: :crossed_fingers:

Progress reports are already out! Kid is chugging along.

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