Unless you missed the PSAT- if you missed the PSAT, you can use the SAT -and take it over and over- to qualify for NMS. How about that for unfair!!!
@Ynotgo - My S may do up to 5 SAT IIs since he is not sure about his major and target school yet. He did Math II and Chem already with 800 in both. I heard some Engineering programs value Physics and Biology related programs prefer Biology. Also he may do one language. He is doing IB Biology & IB physics this year so we have to see how well they prepare him for SAT IIs. Do you think this is a overkill?
@srk2017 yes, that sounds like overkill. Since no
school requires more than 3 SAT Subject Tests (eg, Georgetown) plus he already has 2 800
Scores, he really should just pick one more subject he likes and can do well in, say Physics and just do that one. The amount of time and energy that these kids have is finite, so rather than do 2 more probably unnecessary Subject tests, he would be way better off spending his time on his actual school work, ECs or just seeing his friends.
@londondad - Thanks for the feedback. I am also not in favor of doing too many standardized tests esp given his IB course load. That’s why he is not going to do SAT (unless NMSF) or chase perfect score in ACT or try for AP National Scholar award (requires 8 APs). He thinks he can do well in Physics and Biology with minimal preparation since he studies them for Science Bowl.
I have heard basically what londondad says about SAT Subject Tests beyond 2 x 800. DS took Math Level 2 and Physics freshman year and got 800s. MIT says on their website not to go overboard on testing, because you should have better things to do with your time. I asked at Caltech when we toured, and they said it’s fine that the scores were from freshman year–they don’t get “stale” and that beyond 2 SAT II scores, they’d be looking at AP scores and course rigor. CMU said at one point on their website that they preferred scores from junior & senior year, but I emailed them about his freshman SAT II scores, and they said to ignore the website in his case. I noticed that some kids on the Stanford board were panicking because only 2 SAT II scores showed up on their portal after sending all scores, and that sometimes wasn’t the scores they wanted to Stanford to focus on.
I have heard that SAT II foreign language scores can be useful for not having to take languages or placement in college. So, DS might take the Spanish one in June depending on how he feels he did on the AP and how he can do on a SAT II practice test for Spanish.
Maybe this is off topic for the PSAT, and we should discuss any further over at http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/class-20xx-community/1479899-parents-of-the-hs-class-of-2017.html#latest
what do you mean @ suzyq7
I totally believe that CB and NM work together in at least some aspects and I think this for three very practical reasons: 1) NM depends on results provided by CB; 2) there is money, college admissions, and prestige involved; and 3) someone over at CB blabbed (good work, @3scoutsmom!).
If the PSAT were not normed with an eye toward how those Indexes and cut-offs were going to look state by state (does NM get to “sign off” before scores are released? Hmmm . . . ) then why on earth does it take two whole months to get PSAT results to begin with??? SAT takes three weeks, and ACT 10 days. It doesn’t take two months to norm a test and it doesn’t take an extra month to fiddle with the tails. CB has enough data to tweak old norms so that raw results fit a representational distribution. Assuming, of course, that the raw data doesn’t contain something goofy like 19,000 perfect scores. Then they are in a bit of a pickle with NM.
@gasenioryear I think you make a good point about the two extremes. I think the fact that the CB MANDATED that the PSAT only be given on a school day may have forced students that didn’t care one wit about the test to take it any way. I know many schools used to give the PSAT on a Saturday and only kids that were serious about it made the effort to take it.
@Ynotgo, @londondad , DD had Math II after Freshman got 760. She has since got US history 760 and Bio 800. She wants to go for Chem in May. She might go for engineering as she has been a STEM girl (robotics,etc). Also likely she is going for business/Finance/ economics, and political science. Thoughts on whether she needs Chem??
Also ideas on applying governor school? Current applying. How to stand out? Essay perspective?
@SincererLove I really don’t think she needs to add a 4th SAT Subject Test.
@SincererLove Depending on whether she took Precalculus before or after freshman year and where she wants to apply, she might retake the Math II SAT II and then send that result and the Biology result. There are a few engineering and tech colleges that will want either Physics or Chemistry but not Biology (plus Math Level II). You should check the websites of the universities where she might apply and any specific admission requirements there for engineering majors to see whether any of them will need a Chemistry subject test in place of Biology.
For business/finance/economics or political science, she has plenty of good scores.
Do you think the NEW SAT will be as “easy” as the students found the NEW PSAT to be? We are awaiting the PSAT scores to know whether to pursue another round of ACT prep/testing or focus on the SAT. But if the PSAT doesn’t wind up be any indication of how the student will do on the NEW SAT, then how will we know which way to go? There isn’t a bottomless pit of time or money to take these tests.
Lot of my S’s friends took old SAT on the advice of professional college counselors. We didn’t use counselors have a counselor but opted for ACT.
I am a current junior who scored a 230 on the PSAT last year (80M, 79E, 71CR). Critical Reading has always been my weakness; however, I spent the entirety of the past six months preparing for the new SAT format by exhausting all released practice material (did all prep books, Khan Academy, etc), took GRE and MCAT verbal tests, and read on my own time.
I have never had a problem with English or Math sections-- likewise, I found those sections of the new format to be extraordinarily easy, probably even more so than the old format of the SAT. However, I know for a fact that my classmates struggled with math without a calculator simply because they had no idea what was coming and strictly forgot. As a whole, math scores will either be perfect or abysmal.
However, I felt as if the new format of reading on the SAT was not at ALL like the material that CollegeBoard released-- the practice tests, Khan Academy-- nothing like any of it. The questions on the PSAT as a whole were a lot more general and almost 25% of the questions required making a very broad inference based upon the student’s understanding of the text as a whole. Therefore, I feel as if the test was a lot worse than I expected. For someone who almost never missed a question on all of the released practice SATs and most “difficult” Khan Academy practice tests, I feel like I missed between 2-6 reading questions on the test.
I wasn’t really concerned about this before, but judging how almost everyone on CC has categorized the test as “easy”, I am honestly afraid of being borderline/not making NMF cutoff.
@ayraify, don’t worry. Your experience and past record go to show that nothing is easy. People who said test is easy mostly can’t score perfect. Some people always over estimate their scores, while others like you might always underestimate. Mostly it is because people don’t know what they do’t know. You have the burden of knowing more! Like I told my DD, as long as you did all you could, let it go!
My overall impression (based on working with students on the 4 official practice tests and 1 PSAT practice test) is that students who are strong in an area find the new test easier in that area, and students who are average or weak in an area find the new test harder (especially the non-calculator and advanced algebra math).
Even before the October PSAT, I thought that either College Board would have to make the real test significantly harder than the practice tests, or there would have been an excessively large number of perfect or near perfect scores.
I also expected average to weak math students to be completely blown out of the water by the non-calculator section.
My weak-to-average math students don’t even know their multiplication tables, much less how to do arithmetic of fractions, without a calculator.
So is the consensus among people who took the October PSAT that the test was too easy for strong students, that the test was different from and harder than the official practice tests, or that one PSAT administration was easy and the other hard?
D3 told me that the real deal was easier than the PSAT practice test and there were no real surprises. Math had a bit more calculations than the practice test but was still fine. Her classmates didn’t even realize that the test had been redesigned and was now 1/2 hour longer than previous tests (nor did the teacher who was proctoring - THAT was an issue unto itself). When I asked D3 how her classmates all thought they did, she said a few kids thought it went great and the rest though it was hard.
I concluded that this particular test rewarded preparation. But when I read the other comments from obviously bright and high achieving kids who said they didn’t think they did so well, I have to wonder. Well, eventually all will be known.
@Plotinus my experience (which may not be indicative of my ultimate score) was that the critical reading, which has always been my strongest (I received an 800 on CR the two times I have taken the SAT), was particularly challenging, while the math seemed easy (I’ve only gotten a 700 on math on the old SAT). The writing also felt easy, but I always do well on the writing section. This seems to gel with what my top 2-3% classmates felt on the Oct 14 administration.
@3scoutsmom I never thought of that! Maybe there were a ton of unprepared kids that were forced to take it because it was on a school day- that normally don’t show up on a busy Saturday morning in October. The kids that were prepared, probably did really well. How will the possibly curve it? If the curve UP, then there will be too many at the top.
Are you guys doing anything specific to prepare for the new SAT? I’m really clueless on how to study other than to go through the CB book.