My kids have taken the PSAT every year since eighth grade. Their school gives all eighth-grade students enrolled in geometry the PSAT, and I’ve just made a point of signing them up every year. I am not bothered by the fact that their scores were fairly low. I want the info provided by this out-of-range test.
For example, my freshman daughter and sophomore son scored a 194 and 190 respectively on the PSAT last year. I think this puts them in “striking range” of the up-to-207 needed in our state for NMSF, and it also gives me access to the problems they missed. I think nationally normed grade-level tests are important, but I can get these scores elsewhere, with tests such as MAP or Iowa.
Do any of you have any thoughts on this change? Do you think the younger kids will still be able to take the actual PSAT rather than the simplified version for lower grades? The College Board is clearly trying to mimic the ACT with its Explore and Plan tests. Ironically, the Iowa Test has a better predictive value for eventual ACT score than either the Plan or Explore.
According to the College Board website, 10th graders wishing to take the PSAT will just take the regular test this October, but a new PSAT10 is to be released next year. The PSAT8-9 is going to be given on multiple test dates, so perhaps a student could take both the regular PSAT and the simplified one. I certainly think it would be helpful to get the percentile rank from the simple test, along with the score on the actual PSAT. My only concern is that schools might try to prevent kids from taking the full PSAT.
(Finally, it does look like to me that the College Board has figured out a way to join the ACT in making a lot of money off of these tests by having them given every year instead of just once. Currently the brightest students might take the PSAT multiple times, but the general student body does not).