<p>D's scores went up 10% from sophomore to junior year. She actually spent time doing SAT practice tests to prepare for her junior year PSAT, so a little prep can help. 10% doesn't sound like much, but can mean the difference between national merit designations.</p>
<p>Peggy:</p>
<p>one of the downsides with an advanced math student is that Geom and basic Alg is light years behind Calc. (Historically, we have taught Geom in US high schools in 10th grade bcos of the SAT given in 11th. btw: the US is the only country that teaches Geom as a separate subject, but that is REALLY off point.) </p>
<p>It's not that advanced math kids don't know the SAT math, it's that they forget basic stuff. I highly recommend the SAT practice tests, to refresh their memory on the simple things, and they'll do fine. Prep classes not required for anyone willing to commit personal time to practice.</p>
<p>Peggy, My daughter's PSAT scores all went up from last year but nothing overly dramatic:
10 points in math, 20 in verbal, 50 in writing. I pulled out her score report from last year and basically she fell within the range given on last year's test for all of them.</p>
<p>The new SAT will allow more time for math. CB is trying to combat what they perceive as gender bias in the test. Turns out that males are more comfortable making guesses than females are--so females had a time disadvantage. Once your D gets more confident with her math skills and takes more practice tests, she will be able to feel comfortable making guesses and have more time to finish the test.</p>
<p>My son was in pre-AP Calculus the 1st time he took the SAT and in BC Calc when he took it again. He's a math guy (not a prodigy but math is not a foreign language to him like it is to me). He says his problem with the SAT math was he kept "overthinking" it - it really is just basic math. Once he figured that out he did very well. He said he had to keep reminding himself "it's just geometry, it's just algebra." I've also heard this from his friends, that the math is a little tricky, especially if you're in calculus when you take it.<br>
Carolyn, my older son's scores went up over 30 points from Soph to Jr. year on PSAT, and his 2nd SAT was comparable to 2nd PSAT. He took a short class at school (4 Saturday mornings I think),and did several practice tests at home.</p>
<p>
[quote]
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!
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Quite possibly the funniest thing I have ever read, and so typical of tutoring experiences!</p>
<p>Peggy, my D's PSAT went up 37 points from 10th to 11th grade. From 11th grade converted to SAT/SAT II-Writing equivalents to 12th-grade SAT she went up another 130 ponts.</p>
<p>Part of it, as someone alluded to, was learning how to guess instead of insisting on getting the right answer by the "right" way. Part of it was time managment. And a large part of it was simply learning to avoid the "dumb" mistakes that NJres talks about. All of which should be used for fodder in the argument that the SAT doesn't measure anything except how well you take the SAT test. But as long it's a part of the game, you might as well learn to play it well. Pragmatism 'R Us.</p>
<p>Gee, my DS just walked into the PSAT not thinking much about it, other than it being a practice for the SAT. Tutors??? Practice tests??? Stategies??? Who knew???</p>
<p>My junior's PSAT went up significantly over sophomore scores: from 60 to 69 in Verbal, 62 to 73 Math, and 63 to 76 Writing -- probably just Commended in our state but would be Semifinalist in most other states. I attribute the Verbal/Writing increase to his sessions with a private English tutor although I firmly believe that if you have a kid who reads a lot this will be helpful. My kid reads little -- primarily the sports pages of our local, crummy paper. He took Math practice tests on his own over the last week or two before the test because of my nagging and because local Math tutor, who was swamped with needy kids, insisted he could do it on his own.</p>
<p>My sophomore son did some practice tests and the SAT Question of the Day from collegeboard.com. My daughter, who is now a freshman in college, did not. Part of the reason I'm pushing Son harder is, first, he has hopes of going to a school that requires higher scores (Daughter is Musical Theater major. Takes a lot of talent, but there's not nearly as much emphasis on high ACT scores!) Son wants to go into computers and/or engineering, maybe at a high level school.</p>
<p>The other reason I push Chris is because our school doesn't . He was the only sophomore to take the PSAT, and I was the one that hunted down the guidance counselor. They don't encourage it for sophomores. He is also the only sophomore in Pre-Calc (and in English 11). The school has fought me every step of the way to get him into advanced classes. As I said in my original post, our school offers exactly three AP classes -- Calc, English and Bio. And he may take two of them next year.</p>
<p>He'll take the PSAT again a year from now. In the meantime, he'll do the Question of the Day and take a few more practice tests. He'll dream of Stanford, and probably "settle" for Univ of Mich (40 miles down the road).</p>
<p>Peg</p>
<p>"Gee, my DS just walked into the PSAT not thinking much about it, other than it being a practice for the SAT. Tutors??? Practice tests??? Stategies??? Who knew???"</p>
<p>Originoloog--Yeah, us too. Basically, my S stayed the same through two sets of PSATs, and the SAT. After he took the SAT, he was sent the qustion/answer package by mistake; fortuitous since we hadn't ordered it. Looking at it, he realized he was making dumb calculation errors on the math. When he retook two months later, he went up 70 points on math alone--because he did a better job checking. that was his SAT prep.</p>
<p>My S just waltzed into the PSAT last year (sophomore) and scored 226. This year he prepared carefully for two weeks, with practice exams and everything else we could find. Result: his score went down 3 points to 223, even though his SAT I taken the next month was a very strong 1540. Sometimes it's just how they feel the day they take the test...</p>
<p>Originalloog...my kids also approached the PSAT like yours did...as practice for the SATs. They did not prepare for it at all. They took the practice booklet (one test) to just be familiar with the format as suggested when you sign up and are given the packet. Actually, my second daughter never even took t he PSATs because last year in tenth grade, at the last minute we had to go see my dying father unexpectedly and she had to miss the test though was signed up for it. Then she decided to graduate early and thus took the SATs and SAT2s in spring of tenth grade and was done. </p>
<p>Also taking practice tests supposedly helps in improving SAT scores. Both girls went up a LOT by doing that....taking SATs just twice but a month apart.</p>
<p>Peggy, welcome, I have not seen you post before. I feel a few things in common with you. Our schooling situation has been like yours....having to advocate for this type of learner (mine also have done that same type of acceleration and other accommodations). As well I have a child pursuing a BFA in musical theater, currently as an applicant. Might I ask which program your D goes to? So much of it is the audition but for two of her schools, her academic record also must meet high standards, and they happen to be two favorites. One is in your neck of the woods where she heads for an audition in a month ;-).
Susan</p>
<p>Oh, for the days of innocence when I'd let my kid treat the PSAT as SAT practice! For her, however, a strong PSAT is the gateway to several great summer programs junior year as well as NM recognition. She'll be taking practice tests.</p>
<p>Allow me to pipe it on this. </p>
<p>I think that there's a lot of misconception about the positive impact of guessing. I also think that it is a mistake to believe that guessing is the best tool to save time on the test. If you were to watch intently someone struggling to answer a question, you could see how much time is wasted in pondering, rereading the question, rereading the answers, hesitating, and finally marking an answer. The same waste of time results from returning to a skipped problem to enter a guess. A time that could best used to catch the one or two careless mistakes that almost everyone reports after the test! </p>
<p>Guessing is part of an arsenal of potential strategies, but is probably one of the weakest one. Quite often a tester end up guessing the answer to a question he SHOULD have been able to solve. I am fully aware of the Joe Blogg technique and that The College Board recommends to guess if you can eliminate one or two answers. Doesn't it worry you a bit that TCB makes such recommendation after spending millions to design new way to trick students? The same TCB that claimed for years that the test was NOT coachable? Do not get me wrong, I am a staunch defender of TCB and believe that their integrity in unsurpassed in the industry. </p>
<p>To get to a point -finally- the basic misconception arises from considering the SAT Math a pure math test with questions that need to be solved as students do in high school. The math test is a test of logic and reasoning that happens to require very basic math skills. Just think that it is faster to solve the problems without a calculator than with one! The reasoning and logic comes into play in the reading of the questions and a quick analysis of the answers. Knowing how to solve a particular problem is 90% of the exercise. The other 10% come from knowing how NOT to solve the problems. :) </p>
<p>Very few problems require extensive analysis. This means that they can be solved quickly. Time management becomes critical in deciding the problems that can be solved quickly. A well-prepared student should be able to match the problems with his or her level of ability and preparation. It is a fallacy to believe that everyone can be coached to a perfect 800. However, everyone should be able to score in the upper ranges of his ability. Recognizing the problems that can be solved quickly and accurately is the key to do well on the test: work with confidence! The confidence that allows you to find THE best answer and let you set aside the need to work out all the incorrect answers as an additional proof. A lot of test takers forget that nobody is interested in seeing the preliminary work and that only answers matter. </p>
<p>I could give a few examples to illustrate why the recognition of the problem is important and how inappropriate and aggressive guessing might hurt a student. I wrote about that on the old board when I reviewed the PR New PSAT book. Here's the link: <a href="http://www.collegeconfidential.com/discus/messages/70/84212.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeconfidential.com/discus/messages/70/84212.html</a></p>
<p>Time to get back to studying. My last exam is tomorrow!</p>
<p>Good news:<br>
730 Critical Reading (99)
700 Math (97)
760 Writing Skills (98)
Selection Index = 219
Percentile = 99</p>
<p>Got a 12 on the Princeton Review practice essay, fwiw (2 graders scoring up to 6 pts each)...</p>
<p>When I opened up his 2d quarter progress report last week, I said to myself, "This can't be good news..." 2 F's (Calc AB AP & Spanish 3) and a D in English 3. La-la-la-la-la, I'm so glad I had children!</p>
<p>Xiggi, good luck on your exams and thanks for the input.</p>
<p>Xiggi - Good luck on your tests! Hope they all went well. And thanks for everything you contribute.</p>
<p>KateLewis said, "Oh, for the days of innocence when I'd let my kid treat the PSAT as SAT practice! For her, however, a strong PSAT is the gateway to several great summer programs junior year as well as NM recognition. She'll be taking practice tests."</p>
<p>Have you read any of the student posts on CC? Have you heard parents talking about the shock of reading what their children and friends are writing in LJ? Have you read of the statistics which indicate that over one third our children are experiencing bouts of severe depression? </p>
<p>I think it is about time that we allow our children to reclaim their childhoods, to grow up with a bit more innocence. It starts with gymboree, progresses to little league, then to traveling soccer and dance classes, on to resume padding Physics club, FBLA competitions, CTY summer programs, PSAT/SAT tutors, AP overload, then ED angst. And to what end??? The derogatory terms "hot house" students and "helicopter" parents have made it into the popular jargon and not without reason.</p>
<p>I wasn't subjected to this regimentation and pressure. And neither was my son. That was our choice. Could he have been HYP "material" if he was a "hyper-achiever"? Maybe. But he was not inclined to do that on his own and we were not willing to push him in that direction. Rather we allowed him to rise to the level of his natural abilities and attitudes. Fortunately he was reasonably conscientious and we did have to worry about serious underachievement problems. </p>
<p>BTW, there are a few students who are internally driven to be "hyper achievers". There is absolutely nothing wrong with this as long as the motivation is internal challenge or passion and not a result of and emotionally damaging need to please a parent or unrealistic striving for perfection.</p>
<p>You have to learn to pace yourself
Pressure
You're just like everybody else
Pressure
You've only had to run so far
So good
But you will come to a place
Where the only thing you feel
Are loaded guns in your face
And you'll have to deal with
Pressure--------Billy Joel</p>