<p>My daughter received her junior PSAT scores this afternoon. Well, let's just say that she looks extremely lopsided - 70 on writing, 65 on reading, 50 (!) on math. Even her math tutor laughed when he saw that. She'd been only working with him for a month when she took the PSAT in October - hopefully she's making progress since then. She'll keep seeing him weekly and they sat down today and developed a strategy for what they should focus on --- But, anyone have any tips or suggestions for getting that math score up before the first go-round of SATs in March? She's frustrated that her math didn't go up much over her sophomore year PSAT. Math has always been her weakness - it shows on her transcripts as well. Any thoughts on how being so lopsided will affect her admissions chances (she's looking at LACs in the bottom half of USNWR's top 100)?</p>
<p>.... if you read how to get your PSAT score, you'd discover that your suppose to add a zero behind everyscore. So in reality she got a 700 on writing, 650 on reading, and 500 on math. So inreality, your daughters a pretty bright cookie (^_^)</p>
<p>My son got about a low 60 in verbal, mid 50 in math and mid 40 in writing two years in a row, the second year after taking a course for the test at his school. So we worked very intensely on it in order to bring his scors up. He ended up with a high 700 in verbal, high 700 in math and an 800 in writing which he just took in October. So those scores can go up quite a bit. The math tends to be the easiest to raise, followed by the writing, in my opinion. I find it difficult to raise the verbal. But I also like the PSAT to a sprint and the SAT1 as a distance race, so it does not necesssarily correlate.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, you can look at the questions and ascertain which ones you missed. Generally, for the better students, they can also discern why they missed it.............didn't understand the type of problem well, tripped up by working too fast, computation error, etc. </p>
<p>I think finding how many were computation errors can help raise your confidence and settle you down to getting a good score. You just have to keep practicing and get used to working under pressure. Resist the temptation to "grind" through each problem if you get stuck, and, in fact, I think you can argue for skipping lots of problems and then coming back to the ones that look harder. </p>
<p>Use the test paper for scratch work so that if you actually finish early, you are ABLE to double check your prior work Quickly, rather than doing it all over from scratch. The key, in my opinion, is to maximize the correct solutions to the problems you feel comfortable with, and acheive them accurately and Rapidly. Speed in doing the ones you DO know creates time to check for errors and time to noodle over the more puzzling ones. Try a few tests under extra time pressure by cutting the time by 10 minutes or so. See how you feel about that.</p>
<p>Keep in mind too that for those in less than the super accelerated math, you are likely to improve substantially with the passage of time as you do more math in school.</p>
<p>S says remember the triangle rules (30-60-90, 45-45-90, similar triangles, pythagorean triples, angles and parallel lines) and Practice! and maybe get a book like Barron's or Princeton Review to show some tricks</p>
<p>I agree that the Math is easiest to raise with tutoring/practice/Xiggi.</p>
<p>I'd say that from a 50 now to a 700 next Fall is in range.</p>
<p>I've already talked with Xiggi, theDad. :) Thanks for everyone's suggestions. And Dadx, thanks for reminding me about her level of math - she's only in Algebra II this year and is actually doing pretty well, so hopefully by the end of the year/early next year she'll get that math up. Jamimom, I especially appreciated hearing about your son's experience. And, Simba, I just told her about the triangles and she appreciated that too. </p>
<p>Really, her other scores are probably fine for the schools she's looking at - just that the math has to come up to at least 580 or so. Hopefully, do-able.</p>
<p>My D has the same weakness, and I tell her the only way to get to math's Carnegie Hall is to "practice, practice, practice". (she'd rather play her instrument)</p>
<p>Math is definitely the easiest test score to raise. (to raise reading requires years of actual reading). Since this test only covers algebra and geometry (and some Alg II for new SAT), the questions are clearly designed to trick most kids into an obvious (but wrong) answer; otherwise, 700s would be the norm for anyone taking pre-calc or better. The real key, IMO, is to work problem after problem to understand the tricks of the trade so kids can eliminate the easy, wrong, answer; also use the SAT practice tests from CB, (or PR, or Kaplan). I'm sure your tutor can help in that regard. </p>
<p>The good news is that the other scores are strong, so, D will be able to focus more of her time on math. I know of many kids who studied for only a few days, and were able to raise their score 50-100 points right before the test, so it can be done. But, 15-20 minutes a day for the next three months will show great returns.</p>
<p>As Dadx posted, the full solutions are posted on the CB website, (including why each incorrect answer is wrong), which you can access if your GC gave your D back her test booklet. You can also review the report from CB to see if the weaknesses focus on any area, such as geom, rational numbers, etc. Then, D can focus on those first.</p>
<p>TheDad is absolutely spot on -- you'll be reporting back to us a great score in March worthy of LAC. Good luck. </p>
<p>btw: My S's score came back today -- a couple of silly math errors cost him/me possible merit money (my former company is a big corp sponsor). He's about to start his own math tutorial from me! LOL</p>
<p>Carolyn, my kid's GC refuses to allow me to view the results of D's PSAT until all students get to see theirs. How rude. LOL. I tried.But when they do come in I am expecting a complete reversal of your D's scores.High math,low everything else. My suggestion is from Gene Roddenberry-a Vulcan mind meld between the two.Check with your D.</p>
<p>Carolyn,
I think you may need to look at even more scores now lol ,math is the easiest score to increase so your D looks very good- most kids go up 100 points with no tutoring from jr to senior year. You may need (if interested) to add some tier 1 schools to the list. Way to go to your D !!</p>
<p>Sorry it has been a long day! Should read, I think you may need to look at more schools now! We are waiting for the results of my D's Dec SAT scores so Freudian slip</p>
<p>My D may or may not have been idiosyncratic but she boosted her scores tremendously just by learning time management skills and understanding the test, e.g., the famed "Joe Blogs" answers. Also little tips like, for the Math, if you have no idea, plug in plug in plug in...starting with answer "C" so that you know which way to go.</p>
<p>This forum cracks me up!! :) A couple of hours ago I was sitting at the dinner table going over the psat with S#2. He missed 5 on the math = 66. Every single one of those wrong ones were relatively easy problems that he could have gotten right. There was a line that had coordinates, (-2,0) and (0,2). He glanced at it quickly and said, "slope =2". The appropriate wrong answer was waiting there for his selection (how tricky!). He smacks his head, "Of course the slope is ONE" !!! Anyway, with a little caution and being alert for "tricky" questions I see no reason why he couldn't get them all right next time around. I think the college board site even says that 10th graders can expect to do better as 11th graders. Especially with all the test prep (he had no test prep before the psat as a 10th grader.... i think that would be nuts!) seems like you can realistically expect quite a bit of improvement by the time SATs are taken. </p>
<p>Carolyn, I was also looking at the US News today (what a coincidence!), with special attention to % of applicants admitted. Once you get past the top 20 or 30 LACs, you will be amazed at how easy some are to get in! :) Quite a few pop out with acceptance rates as high as 80%. Son #1, with a very umm.. (don't want to be negative) very unscholarly record, just got accepted to #100 on the list. :)</p>
<p>Yup. My D is still kicking herself for looking at X axis instead of Y on one problem. That answer was expected too.</p>
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Yup. My D is still kicking herself for looking at X axis instead of Y on one problem. That answer was expected too.
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<p>The one with the line where they asked about rotating the line clockwise until it hits the x axis? My S also stopped at the Y axis! LOL</p>
<p>Exactly. And the kicker is that five minutes after she walked out of the test, she was groaning ... realizing exactly what she did!</p>
<p>Carolyn; Feel free to ignore this--but the first thing I would do is find another Math tutor! </p>
<p>In my experience, and I've hired tutors for a variety of subjects--tutor results should be self-evident. Scores and confidence should go WAY up with a Math tutor. If they don't--the tutor isn't accomplished--or isn't a good fit with child's learning style.</p>
<p>Once, I hired a Princeton Review "Master" tutor for ten hours of Math SAT prep. Result? S's Verbal score went up 100 points?! Math stayed the same. Phooey! :) Didn't use that guy again!</p>
<p>Cheers - Daughter only saw the tutor for three one hour sessions before the test so I don't know if I can blame him :). The majority of that time was spent on her math homework (which she needs help with too). The good news is, she is close to getting an "A" in math for the first time ever this semester. So, I know he is helping in that regard. The best part is she is actually liking math this year because he is helping her to actually understand what's going on. Today, they sat down together and set up an SAT study schedule that's a little more rigid than what they've been doing so we'll see how it goes in March.</p>
<p>The unfortunate part is, I can't help her with math at all. I look at those questions and my eyes just glaze over. It is very, very sad how little math skills I have retained from long ago.</p>
<p>(Right place to ask? Wrong place to ask? Stupid question? Reasonable question? Who knows! On the other hand, I have teenagers, so you all can't think I'm any stupider than they do!)</p>
<p>My sophomore took the PSAT. I keep reading that scores should go up between 10th & 11th grade. How much? He's taking Pre-Calc. No AP courses available. Next year he'll take AP Calc, then senior year take AP English. (That's two of the three AP courses our school offers!)</p>
<p>His scores are Reading 59; Math 63; Writing 58. Total of 180. Any guess what kind of scores we can expect in the next couple of years?</p>
<p>Peg</p>
<p>Peggy - that is kind of a hard question to answer. I have had 3 go through the process. All 3 took pre-calc as sophmores and nos. 2 and 3 had AP Calc AB as juniors. No. 1's score went up 24 points, No. 2's went up 1 point and no. 3's went up 25. No. 1 and 3 are much more concientious than #2 and pay much more attention to detail. None of them had any prep classes.</p>