<p>My son took the SAT in January of freshman year as part of the Talent Search, and did well - 2130. At the time, he had a 760 on CR. When he first took the PSAT as a sophomore, his CR was 74 (207 overall), and this year on the PSAT, he got a 70 in CR (216 overall)! While I figured last year's 74 was within a margin of error of a 760, a 70 feels like a significant drop, after two extra years of Honors level English and some AP Comp. His Writing scores are going up nicely. Obviously, to offset this, his math scores have gone up, as I would expect them to with a couple more years under his belt, but math is not his strength (69 this year, up from 66 last year). </p>
<p>Any thoughts on what could be going on with CR? When he looked over this year's PSAT, of the ones he missed, one was just a stupid mistake, but the others were honest errors, although in hindsight, he was surprised that he had missed them. Is the PSAT known to have a more difficult CR section or has he begun to lose ground in that area? If so, how does he remedy that prior to retaking the SAT this spring???</p>
<p>I don’t think the PSAT’s CR is necessarily easier than the actual SAT’s CR because I got my scores back today, and got a much higher score than what I received on the real exam, (SAT CR: 460, PSAT CR: 780). So I guess it just depends.</p>
<p>“Dropping” from a 760 to a 700 may have just meant that he missed a few more questions on the PSAT. Perhaps the reading passages were just not to his liking or experience. I know that my guy struggled on one of the practice book SATs on a passage that had to do with ballet, a subject which he knows and cares nothing about. Also, he’s noticed during the practice tests that the vocabulary is a real crap shoot. Some tests he gets every one right, others he misses 3 or 4. It just depends on luck whether he knows the words that happen to be on that particular exam.</p>
<p>The curve is pretty harsh between 700 & 800, so it really seems like the luck of the draw which passages and vocabulary are on a particular test. Best wishes to your son.</p>
<p>Same thing happened with my DD. Her SAT score this summer was higher than PSAT CR, Math went up. She mentioned vocabulary as the issue. She took a practice ACT in November and did much better overall.</p>
<p>Thanks, maybe it really is just luck of the draw as far as what reading passages and vocab are on the test… it would probably help his consistency if I could convince him to actually study too! Just registered for the Jan 2013 SAT, so it will be interesting to compare, Hoping the downward trend doesn’t continue!!</p>