**PSAT Discussion Thread 2015**

“They could substantially increase the SAT confirmation score.” This is problematic because in the old system you had such a wide spread of qualifying scores, from about 203 to…not going to look this up but wasn’t it about 224 on the high end? So the kids who qualified with the 203 could easily be knocked out if they raised the 1960 score, which is not much lower than their PSAT score though ridiculously low for the kids from the high cut-off states. Unless they institute a different confirmation score for students from different states, which I think will highlight the score discrepancies even more and make more people unhappy, I don’t see how they can raise the confirmation score significantly.

I hear you. I just scanned through the doc and they pretty clearly say 16,000 students. I feel like the doc has changed since October, but maybe not. I’m too tired to go look at my paper copy. I thought they had referenced the fact we would get an email in mid December, but that may have only been on the site.

Anyone have a link to information on how exactly the NM semifinalists are chosen for each state?

read the link above… It’s in there.

@suzyQ7 The metadata in the PDF at http://www.nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf says the document was created on 7/9/2015 and last modified on 9/15/2015.

My kiddo received the Boston email but not the Standord, etc, letter but is well under 16.

Interesting tidbit about the guy behind the redesign of the SAT. He is David Coleman, president of the College Board. His prior responsibilities include being one of the principal architects of the Common Core State Standards. This guy makes waves wherever he goes.

Too bad Common Core test results have been disastrous and Common Core itself has been rejected by many states. What does that bode for the new SAT?

Maybe it is a marketing ploy for Springboard curriculum? Use Springboard and outperform students nationwide! $-) (Just being snarky.)

did you get email telluride association

Yes, it looks like the TASP emails went out this morning to some subset of juniors. In fact, the email says,

I’d be interested to know whether they did get the emails for high scorers on this year’s PSAT, or whether they compromised because of the scoring delay and are sending the email out more broadly. They do have a long-standing relationship with the CB on sending out their announcements. Back in the dark ages, a postcard from TASP was one of the first pieces of mail I got as the result of the junior PSAT, which was the first standardized test I’d taken.

For juniors, BTW, if you are high-achieving and into humanities, this is a very highly regarded program (and free!).

DD didn’t receive TASP email. Perhaps it means she didn’t pass the cut-off of “top scorers”!?

Anybody got invitation for Telluride Association Summer Program?

Just an off-topic aside. I looked at the TASP website to see this year’s topics, and one of the things I noticed in the FAQ is that students do not need to receive the email in order to apply.

Back in the dark ages, I applied to TASP and got to the interview stage. Though I wasn’t selected to attend, writing the essays and doing the interview were both very valuable to me at a time in my life when I needed to re-examine the beliefs I’d been raised with.

what does the invitation signify? top 1%? top 3?

@Ynotgo , I apparently didn’t refresh when I posted. Do you think it is based on last year PSAT or this year PSAT?

DS didn’t get one. Honestly I’ve never even heard of the program before. But it does sound like college board has released the scores.

i got the tasp email, and i’m a junior. none of my friends got that email, nor the stanford summer letter. i’ve also taken the psat last year, the act in june, the sat in october, and ap tests the past two years.

I didn’t receive a TASP invite last year and I didn’t receive one this year. However, I get mail from top colleges like Stanford and Columbia … Whether or not you’re sent certain mail may depend on what prospective major you bubbled on the PSAT. After reading a little about TASP, I found that it is a humanities-geared program. Maybe those who chose a STEM-oriented major weren’t sent the email?

Just some speculation.

@SincererLove Last year’s PSAT could be what they are using, though they would miss a lot of kids who don’t take the PSAT in 10th grade. DS’s score was plenty high last year; this year, we don’t know.