<p>Dear parents. I've 'lurked' for a while - OK a long time- and really appreciated the information and insights that helped with my older Ds college selection process. There are many here whose thoughtfulness and kindness shows through their posts. Older D is happily ensconced at her LAC. What brings me up to the table, so to speak, is my middle child getting back PSATs today. She'd done practice exams and knows how to circle answer in booklet and bubble in batches. We went through the booklet to look at wrong answers and she has the right answer circled in booklet on every single answer! (This is not surprising given this child.)Each wrong answer was a bubbling mistake or ...possible scoring error? The wrong answers are scattered throughout. She didn't make any bubbling errors in her favor. So - does anyone have any experience with this? How many bubble errors do you think the average kid makes? Does CB hand-score PSATs (only found the SAT info on web and it is too late to call today)? Any experience with that process? It looks like she will qualify for NMSF, but it will be close, so if somehow hand-scoring goes against her, it could hurt. She doesn't want to just assume it was bubbling error, however, but wants to know for sure if that was the case.</p>
<p>Well, if she'll qualify for NMSF, what's the advantage of having it hand-scored and getting a higher score?</p>
<p>If she bubbled wrong answers, the hand scoring won't help her - it will still be a wrong bubble... If she erased and changed some answers, but did not erase well enough, the computer might have gotten confused, and the hand-scoring might help. But I've never heard of hand-scored PSATs...</p>
<p>In this case, I think it might be wise to request a hand-score. It doesn't sound like a frame-shift. If NMF status isn't a slam dunk, I would ask for a rescore by hand. If you can be pretty much assured she'll be NMF, though, I don't know that I would do that. Do what you think is best, because if you don't, you can't go back ...</p>
<p>If it will help you sleep at night, pay for the rescore. In my experience, however, rescores seldom make a huge difference, and keep in mind that a rescore can sometimes result in LOWER scores as well as HIGHER ones.</p>
<p>Thanks for the comments. I'm sensitive to this because I have a friend whose Ds SAT was one of the ones scored wrong a few years ago - made a big difference in her college choice and scholarships and she was informed too late. CB holds a lot of power with little oversight. (Aside - If they can scan and post essays why can't they post answer sheets?) My daughter would like to know if it was her bubbling, but she will have to consider the risks. This years NM qualifying score would have to go up 5 points in our state for her not to qualify, but Carolyn helped me consider that a single answer difference on PSAT can be that, so I think we might never know...</p>
<p>Was able to read the fine print this am. CB allows one to order a copy of PSAT answer sheet. Written request and only $10. This will answer D's questions. No risk.</p>
<p>I don't know how many bubbling errors the average kid makes, but I'm sure they're pretty common. I was looking over my daughter's PSATs and trying to get her interested in My College Quickstart, and I noticed she'd missed some relatively easy questions. When I asked her to give me the answers verbally, she said ... oh, that's whatever (correct response), and she was surprised when I told her that she had apparently chosen something else on the real test. She may have just been wrong intially, given the stress of testing, rushing, or whatever, but there were a couple of questions she'd missed that I really thought she could have done with her eyes closed. I guess all I can do when the PSAT actually counts for her is hope that she's careful reading, answering, and bubbling all the questions.</p>