**PSAT Discussion Thread 2015**

I just received a call back from the College Board about my “escalated” request for information. The new official word is that the “basic scoring” is complete but they are still working on the new “enhanced” score report and they can’t release scores “early” because they want to give students the most accurate and comprehensive scoring information to help them prepare for the SAT. There was no mention of technical issues with actually delivering the scores.

I think this is all BS. She also denied that any student college search information had been released from this PSAT testing date.

Do we actually have posters here who did not take any CB exam (no SAT, PSAT, AP, etc.) prior to October 2015 who are getting college search information that can be linked to their October PSAT? The idea that CB can release your score info. (even if it’s in a broad category of “percentile ranges”) before releasing the test results to the individual students seems beyond problematic, IMHO. It’s not like Stanford paid any student to take the test and owns the rights to those results before students get them.

my DS got summer catalog from Oxbridge Academic Programs. So did his friend. Only two at his school that got it.

I doubt that CB released raw scores to colleges so that they can send out the marketing materials. It’s probably based on the basic information they have. Last year my S got marketing material from January on wards. His PSAT score as a sophomore was decent but not Ivy league level given the gender and ethnicity but pretty much all Ivies sent him materials. It’s their ploy to increase application pool and later to boast about their low acceptance rate!

@3scoutsmom Hmm, so I wonder if the “enhanced” scores are what is on page 2 of the sample report – subscores, “on track” for college readiness, cross-test scores (history and science). There are a lot of cutoffs they have to set for that page, and some of them are “political” decisions, particularly the on-track for college cutoffs, which states could potentially use in various ways for 11th graders. I notice that the sample has very small yellow ranges for the on-track bar. That is odd compared to the normal size of the “approaching benchmark” range on a lot of recent tests like SBAC. I would guess that certain organizations would complain about the size of the yellow range.

DS has taken AP tests since 8th grade and has been getting college mail since then. We don’t try to parse what mail came as the result of what test. Some of the mail seems targeted at the major he specifies, so there can be variation in who sends you mail beyond whatever score cutoffs an organization purchases from CB.

Got the Oxbridge one as well, but in our case it could be based on AP’s or last year’s PSAT.

So, Sophmores who tested for the first time in October, are you getting mail?

My son just took the PSAT in October for the first time as a sophomore. He has not taken any other college board exams, and he has not received any mail. I asked him if he remembers indicating that he did not want mail, and he feels sure he did not do so (meaning, he would be receiving mail). His practice PSAT was good and put him in NMSF range according to some online cutoff “guesses”.

Hope this helps.

I have only taken the recent PSAT and Stanford told my mom “we send those letters to the top 5%” Maybe someone else should call them and ask?

Just to confuse things further I asked D3 yesterday whether she checked a box in order to receive college mail or checked a box in order to NOT receive college mail. She gave me “the look” and said “Mom, the first one.” And then went on to explain that you don’t check boxes in order NOT to receive something (of course - silly me). So I really have no idea whether she’s remembering correctly or jumping at the chance to give her mom a lecture.

I do seem to remember my D1 telling me she checked the box to receive communication and she definitely did receive mail and e-mail due to her PSAT score. Well, in a few weeks all will be known.

@Mamelot,

Just asked son AGAIN, and he says your D is correct (I’m not surprised). He says he DID mark to receive information. I think I confused him in how I worded the question.

Sorry for the confusion.

Well @Belle315 that makes it Kids: 2; Parents: 0. LOL

See this post:

http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19070050/#Comment_19070050

@workinghard1234 said that she had never taken the PSAT before. Did you ever take ANY CB tests before? Stanford told her that the mailing data was sourced from CB PSAT.

Don’t put too much into the Stanford letter, or any others for that matter. It’s all about marketing at this point as the schools buy names/addresses of students with a certain scoring percentage from CB and ACT, all designed to get more applicants. The percentage will vary by school. Usually a school will only say they send to “above average” scorers, so whether the 5% from Stanford is accurate, it’s difficult to be certain. The schools also get the high school grade information the student entered into their CB or ACT bios.

As to the summer programs themselves, I’m not sure if it makes any difference for college acceptance if a student actually attends said program, other than showing interest, but there are a lot of other ways to show interest. Full disclosure, S (junior) got the Stanford letter; he had checked off the CB mailing request box. He’s only taken PSATs at this point, but he’s been getting a lot of “high end” mailings for quite some time. D (now a college freshman) also received similar mailings. She did get a lot more once she took her SAT/ACTs. We took these marketing efforts for summer programs at their face value: expensive programs with the only guarantee that attending would improve the bottom line of the school.

You’re all making me concerned as I didn’t receive a letter in the mail.

Well my data point is that my junior son took the PSAT and has received no mailings. It was his first test with College Board as he has only done the ACT in the past. Based on the practice tests (and ACT) he should def. be in the top 5%, hopefully higher.

Ugh! I just got of the phone again with the College Board - they called me, I’m done with them. The last time I spoke to them I asked for a refund since my DS20 won’t have his test scores in time for one of the purposes he took PSAT for. She was calling back to tell me that the they would not be issuing refunds, big surprise there. But she kept asking me “is there anything else I can do for you?” So I said yes, please explain to me why it is taking so long to get the scores out!

This time I got a bit more information. She said they had more students take the test than expected, 4.5 million! Can you imagine how much money that is for the College Board?!

She also said “they needed time to make sure the test was fair and equatable across all student populations” really, isn’t that something you do before you give the test? It sounds more and more like they did not get the results they wanted so the are ‘adjusting things’

She stressed again that it’s not the actual scoring that is the problem but the “enhanced scoring” that is taking longer than expected. I pointed out that for the SAT they release the basic scores before the detailed score report and suggested they do the same for the PSAT but she said they couldn’t do that because the PSAT is “a different assessment”

@Dylan197, don’t be.

“they needed time to make sure the test was fair and equatable across all student populations” - What the hell does that mean, exactly?

@Caroldanvers - what you said.

BTW does anyone know whether for the PSAT a student can order the answer key or whatever it’s called to make sure that their raw scores were computed correctly and see how it translates into a scaled score?

Wow, this all just sounds fishier and fishier from CB, doesn’t it? It’s annoying enough that we wind up paying hundreds of dollars in fees for these tests by the time a kid makes it through high school (I’ve got a nice rant on this whole AP racket ready to go at a moment’s notice, lol) and then to feel like the way they’ve rolled this out has been so sketchy…

FWIW, my D17 got the Stanford letter and Brown email, but I’m not sure I put too much stock in that ‘top 5%’ thing.