**PSAT Discussion Thread 2015**

@awesomepolyglot - No he was taking the PSAT. Are you sure that every kid taking the PSAT had exactly the same test? If that’s so then the only thing I can think of is that one of my kids has a better memory than the other because they didn’t sound like the same passages to me. Anyway neither one of them had any trouble with the small amount of words in Spanish.

@MichiganGeorgia nope! I am a junior but my sophomore friend took the same exact test with the same passages.

I am not CB’s biggest fan, but I think it is completely valid to include PSAT or SAT passages with some foreign words in them. These are real passages. The AUTHORS put the foreign words in the passages, not CB. When you read in English as a college student, you may well encounter texts with some foreign words. You are supposed to know how to understand these texts, even if you don’t know the foreign language. You are supposed to know how to use the context to understand the gist of words whose meaning you don’t know. This is a fundamental reading comprehension skill. It is valid for CB to test it. It is not as if CB used the dialogues in French from the Magic Mountain.

When are the scores released?

@krauser126 Around 2 months from now (Mid-December) I believe.

I don’t think the sample report really was really there so show you the scaling its just supposed to be a general idea of what the report you get in december will look like

So the December score reports will have a list of reading skills under Writing and Language, and a list of writing skills under Reading?

It would be so nice to have the scores released directly to the student and not have to go through the whole group guidance counselor release parade.

@carachel2 if the student reported an email address they will get the scores directly this year.

Do you find out if you qualified for NM during December as well? And how come they don’t have an exact release date? Are we talking beginning, middle, or end of December?

Mid December, the official wording is about two months after the test date. You don’t find out if you make semifinalist until the beginning of your senior year.

“It would be so nice to have the scores released directly to the student and not have to go through the whole group guidance counselor release parade.”

AMEN. Pretty much everyone on this thread - and a whole lot more - are perfectly capable of interpreting their scores w/o “help” from the guidance counselors. It’s an annoyance and a holdup of valuable info. Thank goodness we all get online access now.

It seems that those who care don’t need the counselors, and those who need the counselors don’t seem to care. The messy ironies of Life.

Overall I thought the test was pretty good. The writing was really easy and the reading was okay.

I got cut short 4-5 minutes on the reading section but got an extra 4-5 minutes on grammar. I want to take the alternate test on the 28th, so do you guys think the collegeboard would allow me to based on proctor’s poor job?

The PSAT is soo yesterday.

What test are you (or your kid) taking next? Old SAT? New SAT? ACT? A Subject test? When are you taking it?
How are you studying? That’s what we are struggling with at this point.

The PSAT is next, on Oct. 28.

hahahahaha @nw2this we hear ya over at our house. However, D2 is taking a bit of a breather and will see how she did on PSAT before delving into the (revised) SAT in March. Already took her ACT as a sophomore and did well. She’ll need to do at least one (probably two) subject tests but we haven’t even discussed those yet. We will soon. One for sure will be math or science, not sure about the other one.

Wish we had gotten something taken care of in 10th grade. Now she has the ACT and all of the SATs plus 3 APs and an IB this year.

But I guess the NM kids who are targeting the big scholarships and not going competitive are good to go after the PSAT and a confirming SAT.

@nw2this - DS is a Junior. I wanted the testing to be over for him sooner rather than later. He is not going to be applying to any Ivy’s just public state schools. So he already took the June ACT and SAT. Then studied some for the math part of the ACT and took the Sept ACT & Oct SAT. He will find out his SAT score tomorrow. I doubt that he will be a NM kid however if he is I hope the Oct SAT score will be high enough to be a qualifying score. At this point I don’t want him to have to take the new SAT. I think the old qualifying SAT score was a 1960 or higher which he already has but it may be higher with the new PSAT…

He will take some Subject tests in June. He most likely take Latin,English & US History. He will not study for them though. He will study for the AP Lang and APUSH so maybe that will help.

Has anyone found another free 2015 PSAT Practice Test other than the official College Board paper and online one with the reading section from Jane’s Austen’s book Emma? D would like to take one more practice test for the new PSAT test which is next Wednesday. Her high school only has old practice PSAT Practice Test booklets. Would any of these old tests be helpful, or irrelevant for the new PSAT?