My child is a sophomore and got a 196 - what are his chances for 219 next year ?
@Artvax, he has an excellent chance! My sons’ scores increased 37, 24 and 39 points. But I also know of several students whose scores decreased junior year. Moral of the story is that your son should not count on increasing his score just based on being a year older and wiser. Be sure he studies and consider a course like TestMasters (online is available). My sons did not take a course like that but did study on their own.
It’s certainly not beyond the realm of possibility with some study. What was your kid’s score breakdown (i.e., does he/she have any particular strength on the test?)
Working practice PSATs or SATs is about all I know. Bear in mind this is coming from someone who only got a 211, and I only took it as a junior. There are plenty of good books out there (like the blue SAT book) but remember that the PSAT is going to be different for Class of 2017 juniors (i.e., this fall’s PSAT.) I think some practice materials might be coming out this spring… might want to search other threads for info on that. Look for “new PSAT/SAT” or something, there’s been some ongoing talk about it.
I’m guessing that you are in a state with a National Merit cutoff score around 219?
Thanks Barfly for your reply. Interestingly he has been going to college prep for a year now - and his score in math only went up by 3 points. it really worries me… begining to wonder if these college prep centers work at all.
Hi albert69 - yes we live in a state where NMS cutoff is 219
BTW here is the break-up - any insight is welcome
M - 68
CR - 65
W - 63
Doesn’t he have to take the new PSAT?
is it new SAT or new PSAT too ?
I thought it was only SAT that is changing. Please clarify
@Artvax prep classes are only worth as much as the student puts into them, though some are better than others.
D did a local group prep class before the 10th grade PSAT/SAT and she scored 214/2150 after some research I found out that the local class was really just geared to get most kids up to 2100+ The summer before 11th grade we switched to prepscholar.com which was much more individualized and geared to get kids up to 2300+ She was able to score 231/2310 this year. And yes, I’m amazed at how close the PSAT and SAT scores aligned both years!
Some kids do better studying on their own too…
Thanks for that advice. I’m begining to think the college prep center is not helping.
Thanks From MD. I guess i’m very worried at this point and dont want my child to get burned out to. He is in all honors and AP besides after school stuff too. And Marching band - we are planning to drop it next year.
Okay, so all the scores are in the same range. Writing was my strongest point (I got a 78 on PSAT writing and 71 MC sub score on the SAT) I would say knowing grammar is really the key. (M and CR scores were about the same for me, so I’m not going to advise you there.) Look for improper usages of plural/singular nouns and verbs. For instance, “Her sister’s dresses is covered with patches.” “Is” is wrong because “dresses” (the subject) is plural, thus the verb needs to be plural as well (“are” would be correct.) I remember there being at least several questions on that type of thing. Learn about prepositional phrases and be able to cross them out so that you only need to look at the noun(s), verb(s), adjectives and/or adverbs. Like, “The man walks across the block slow.” “Across the block” is a prepositional phrase, so cross it out then you only have, “The man walks slow.” Of course, that is wrong because “slow” is not the proper adverb; “slowly” is the correct form. Also, for the parts where you read a badly written paragraph/essay and repair it, understand how to make the best sentences with what they give you, how to combine or split sentences up so that it flows the best and is the most grammatically correct. It needs to at the very least be an independent clause to be correct. Don’t choose something that will give you or leave you with run-on sentence either; they do make those in those passages.
But it is changing, so the format of the questions might be different, though I would think that the same concepts would be tested.
Thanks albert69. That’s really helpful. My son has problems in the author’s intention or interpretation portion. Truthfully I tried it once and found it very confusing 
3 questions if it’s ok:
- Did u also do any college prep.?
- How long did u practice before junior psat ?
- How many after school clubs r rendered too much ?
I think that is a big leap. My daughter had a 199 her sophomore year and scored a 211 her junior year. She took a 8 hour class in between. A month later she got a 2150 on her SAT ( which would have been enough for NM in our state) and a 34 on her ACT. If he doesn’t improve enough on the PSAT then have him try the ACT.
@Artvax, that equal distribution of scores is probably a good thing. Your son just needs to improve a little in each category. Remember, one question often makes a 4 point difference on the PSAT! Getting a couple more right in each section is SO doable! There are only so many types of math and grammar questions they can ask, right? So practice practice practice. On the Critical Reading, here is our story: I read on CC that students who did well on that section said it just “clicked” at some point after doing lots of questions. I didn’t know why it was so difficult for my boys, so I tried a few questions and realized that the reading passages and questions really are confusing/ambiguous. So then my S2 and I started doing one CR passage and the questions per night, and one day for me it just “clicked” and since then I can get them all correct. Same for my son - about a week before the actual PSAT he said to me “Mom, I get it! It clicked!” Isn’t that weird? But what my son explained was that he finally realized that the correct answer has to be there, and if he wasn’t sure, then he probably was missing something. So anytime he wasn’t sure, he looked again at the answer choices and usually then realized without a doubt which one was correct.
Thanks Barfly. I guess we have to do that more often with my son. My husband sat through for a few days and realized that mere re-reading helped.
- I'm not sure what "college prep" is, so probably not. Do you mean online from CollegeBoard or an in-person prep course? I did half (one evening) of an SAT course, but I do very much follow up work.
- I probably did about 8-9 practice tests starting around 2 weeks prior to the test day. The tests were old PSATs or PSAT practice tests from previous years. (You can find tests like these online by searching for "20XX psat practice test," just fill in the Xs with the last few years.) I wouldn't advise this method as it was really only my crazy writing score that propped it up over the NM cutoff, and my state's cutoff score was only 210.
- What do you mean "too much?" I'm not sure how that relates to the PSAT.
^^ Forgot to add that the small amount of prep class that I did was months after the PSAT, not before.
Thanks albert69. You made PSAT, that is great especially with very little preparation time !!!
To clarify the 2 things I mentioned:
- College prep - in-person prep course like Kaplan where kids go for workshops.
- Too much - I asked this because these in-person places have a 4 year college prep (9th - 12th grade) in person classes/workshops once a week.
I scored a 201 freshman year, a 225 sophomore year, and pulled a 240 in junior year. No studying aside from the traditional practice test at 9 pm before the actual test date. For me, I’d say that it was definitely a natural progression.