Hi all, D21 (so rising junior) will take the mandatory PSAT at her school this fall. She’ll take a first dip into the ACT in December just to see which test she prefers to focus on for late spring or summer testing. She hates testing and I want to avoid too many tests for her.
She’ll be very busy this fall with competetive marching band and academics, and hard pressed to motivate herself to do any test prep at all, much less prep for two different tests. It’s not terribly critical now, as these will be “testing the waters” experiences, but I would still like her to do a little beforehand but I doubt she would prep for both this fall. Would SAT books (to get ready for both tests) cover more bases, or ACT books? She’s a fast reader and stronger at English than Math, so I wouldn’t be surprised if she eventually chooses the ACT to focus on. Thanks in advance!
Because the 11th grade PSAT could lead to NM scholarships if she scores highly enough, it seems like doing SAT prep earlier (before the PSAT date) could help there as well as for the SAT.
Has your D taken any practice tests at all?
At my D’s school the test prep was first for PSAT because of the national merit potential. Then students would decide if they wanted to take the SAT or the ACT. D’s school had students do practice tests for both SAT and ACT sophomore year to see if one was better than the other.
Testing the waters for the ACT un or under prepared is a very bad idea, just cancel that December test, have her prep for the PSAT (this is a tough sell IME) and have her use xmas vacation to prep for next ACT (does her school mandate ACT?). If you want a cold test, get her to go to the GCs office and pick up copies of practice tests and do a timed test under your supervision. At least it will give you a ball park. Are you looking at paying for prep? Even the cheap courses usually start with a day one diagnostic test.
Do you feel compelled to do such early real testing? Is she in accelerated classes?
D21 took the PSAT last year (sophomore year), then a few months later did a practice ACT through a prep center. She’s prepping for the 8/24 SAT, then will do the September ACT. She won’t do much differently.
My friend’s son prepped a lot for the ACT. Took it at least 3 times, maybe 4? Never broke 27. Then took the June SAT without doing anything differently, and got a 1400. You never know.
I also agree to not bother taking an official test cold. There are plenty of practice exams available where a student can get a feel for which format they prefer.
My D used the Barons prep books and then also downloaded tests from college board.
Also, depending on what kinds of schools you think your D will be aiming for, prepping for these exams should be a priority junior year.
She has been a straight-A student on the honors/AP track but still, I doubt she’ll make national merit status. So, that would be nice, but not really prepping for that, specifically.
She actually took the PSAT-10 (unprepped) last year and did well enough on the reading section (thought it was kind of fun, in fact) but got rattled in math and scored almost 200 points lower. On the other hand, though she doesn’t like math very much, she has often scored higher in math throughout the years in her state testing…always well into the “exceeds expectations” category but not brilliantly high. So I’m hoping she had a bad day and that her math scores will come up a good bit naturally (the fact that she finished honors Algebra 2 with a high A is a good sign) but I don’t see her as NMF material and don’t want to pressure her unduly. She’ll likely apply to mid-tier (30-80-ish) LACs.
I doubt her school will do much, if any prep before the PSAT . Her school is beginning to offer semester courses in both Math and English test prep, but she’ not taking those, instead focusing on advanced core courses. We don’t live in a community where test prep or elite college admissions is a part of the culture…most students go on to the local directional, community college or regional LACs, and very few to elite schools. (When a local student got into an Ivy two years ago it made front page headlines…)
So, I get it that the ACT and SAT are different in style (ACT being more straightforward, nuts-and-bolts but faster-moving), but is the content really THAT different? I would think the test prep books would have a lot of commonalities…
If the difference between last year and this year is completion of algebra 2, that may be significantly helpful on the PSAT and SAT math sections.
Seems like the most efficient way to prep is to try a released exam, grade it, then focus studying on particular types of problems based on the result.
I’ll get a PSAT prep book, and try to have her do the practice ACT at home after the PSAT, but now that full-time band camp (leading seamlessly into “away” competitions almost every weekend) has set in, it’ll be a hard sell.
She’s that kid who is super-conscientious about crossing her "T"s and dotting her "I"s for anything assigned at school but balks at my loading anything additional on. She tends to motivate herself (to a point) once reality hits, which is why I thought paying for her to take a test “cold” might be a good investment in getting her going for late spring or summer testing. We certainly won’t be paying for test prep tutors or private admissions coaches, so it seemed a relatively modest price to pay.
The good news is that math can be reviewed and scores improved. If her verbal score last year suggested she might make NM status (commended or semi-finalist) it may be worth even a few SAT math tutoring sessions to bring the scores up. My kid that was in marching band did not have time to take practice tests and review books, but had a handful of tutoring sessions, which gave him some test taking tips and reviewed some of the math.
The problem with taking a real test cold for a baseline is that if your child studies hard, prepares well for the next one, and has a big score increase, it could get flagged by the testing body. Do a search for the tread on ACT scores being cancelled. It’s quite eye opening.
@mom2and, honestly, I don’t of any test tutors in our small town. My husband is very “mathy” and could easily help her review math concepts (I’m afraid I’d have to " motivate" him as well as her 
) but he wouldn’t know much about test-taking strategy.
@momofsenior1, good point…I’m already a little afraid of that with the SAT. Her PSAT10 math score was really quite low and she did say she knew the day of the test she had bombed it. With that, plus the completion of Algebra 2, I’m hoping for a big jump this year but also afraid of it. I hope College board will be more forgiving of jumps in the PSAT, knowing that students change and mature a lot from sophmore to junior year.
@inthegarden my D was the same way. She had a calculator issue that just got her flustered, and knew immediately she didn’t do as well as she could have. I think verbal was over 100 points higher. Khan academy is good - D linked her PSAT results from College Board and they customize a plan.
She did better on the practice ACT. She takes the ACT in September so we’ll see. She was also early in Alg2 when she took both. NMF for NJ is quite high, so I don’t think we’re even going to bother with it in the fall; we’ll see how the SAT score looks.
Based on your description of her, it sounds like the ACT would be the better test. The reality, though, is that the ACT, while “easier”, requires you to work fast. And the best way to work fast is to practice.
Because the PSAT doesn’t count for anything except nMF and you don’t expect that outcome, I would "forfeit " that test in favor of ACT prep. I am a big believer in optimizing time, especially for a busy student who isn’t really excited about tons of prep.
ACT has online prep (very reasonable) , Schmoop might have free prep access for your school. Where do you live that there are no prep options? Don’t rely on your kid for that info. Call your school and google. If your kid goes to high school, there is accessible prep somewhere.
I concur with the PSAT, I was never really able to get my kids on board (they are top 1&2% of ACT). The kids I know that did well on PSAT were the literal super stars.
maybe the comprimise (for now) would be to ask her to do some free Khan Academy prep for the PSAT (especially math) and purchase some books for the ACT. She already started a bit with Erica Meltzer’s ACT English book.
I haven’t registered her yet for the December test so anything at this point is negotiable. I only thought of her doing it in December as an early reality check (so that she doesn’t end up procrastinating and doing a few sessions in a state of panic in late spring. Ideally, I’d like her to ease into practicing in a relaxed way…even 30 minutes once or twice per week would help in the long term.
@Sybylla, thanks! I’ll look for the online ACT prep and call the school in a few days when it opens.
I expect the school has people there. How big is the school?
Just under 800 students (total). Teachers don’t go in until next week. Don’t know about other staff. Guess I could call.