<p>Fantasy type books are not a problem. My older son reads almost nothing but sci fi and fantasy. He got an 800 on the Critical Reading section. However he reads a lot. More than any other kid I know. He always has a book in his pocket. Good sci fi and fantasy authors tend to write with a varied and fairly advanced vocabulary. I remember once one of my sons came home and told me the only reason they knew one of the answers on a geography bee (what is an isthmus) was because of a fantasy book they had recently read.</p>
<p>Mathmom, my son too reads stuff you wouldn't think of as traditional "reading" maybe. Sports Illustrated - great writing, BTW. Rolling Stone, ditto. The New Yorker movie reviews. Also, who knew, Magic(TM) cards? Fabulous vocabularies;).</p>
<p>Another parent here saying read, read, read! </p>
<p>DS1 is a voracious reader -- like mathmom's son, mostly SF, but will also devour Tom Friedman, Tom Clancy, etc. He crosses the streets with his nose in a book. At back to school night freshman year, the PE teacher talked about the need for kids to participate fully and cited an example of one student doing laps around the track while reading a book. DH and I had to hold each other to keep from bursting out in laughter. Afterwards, we went down and introduced ourselves and admitted we were undoubtedly the parents of the reader. We were.</p>
<p>Even so, his CR scores were ok until he learned NOT to overanalyze the passages and to go with the answer that made the most sense. He seems to have figured it out now -- he went from 68 on PSAT CR soph year to 80 this year. He hasn't taken the SAT yet, so we'll see if his strategy continues to hold true.</p>
<p>When our kids were small, Thomas the Tank Engine and Beatrix Potter stories (in their original, impeccable British English) were a fabulous source of vocab that just assimilated into their brains. My kids would be the first to say that studying vocab lists are pointless. </p>
<p>DS2 reports that his war-strategy computer games were quite helpful for geography (two-time Geobee champ in MS). DS1 would agree and add that he picked up a lot of history that way, too.</p>
<p>LOL, I expect my kids learned a few words from Magic too. It seems to be enjoying a resurgence in our household. My younger son constantly impresses teachers with his knowledge of history - derived mostly from computer games.</p>
<p>These are all great suggestions. It still seems likely, though, that your son misbubbled or just filled in random dots on his PSAT test. Scores in the 20's and 30's are so low as to be virtually impossible from a kid who is succeeding (and getting A's) in a high school curriculum.</p>
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Scores in the 20's and 30's are so low as to be virtually impossible from a kid who is succeeding (and getting A's) in a high school curriculum.
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<p>I've heard of some rather pathetic high school curricula these days, so I take the OP's report at face value. One of the reasons colleges still regard standardized test scores, with all of their acknowledged faults, is that often high school grades have even graver faults that are less acknowledged.</p>
<p>To the OP: On the back of the PSAT score report is the address where you can send a request for a copy of the answer sheet (basically, a copy of the bubbled sheet). The PSAT score report will tell you what questions your son missed, but not if there were bubbling errors. It costs $10 and DS got his within two weeks. It will show you what your student bubbled and if there is reason to request hand scoring (which is $50). You can request this until April 30, 2007.</p>
<p>Three to Go, If it makes you feel any better, my S2, a jr. and an ok student but not great, chose to skip taking the PSAT this year. Just like your son, he thought it was "dumb" and had already taken it in 9th and 10th grades. So he just skipped it. I didn't know this until after the fact of course. Also he is currently failing Spanish 2 while making A's and B's in his other classes including 2 AP's and an Honors class. Maybe our kids know each other.</p>
<p>Just a thought, but could he focus on the ACT instead??
We have no experience with it, but perhaps the preparation might be less awful or at least a different kind of awful than prep for the SAT(??) It sounds like some students do better with one than the other.
Older S did well on the SAT, but it meant some review classes and a ton of preparation on his own. He was very self-motivated, but HATED the whole time-consuming process. He never tried the ACT, and is now suggesting that his younger brother (HS freshman) might consder it as an alternative down the road.</p>
<p>One other thought: if this was not the genuine College Board PSAT/NMSQT but rather an ersatz cram-course-company practice test, then there may be faulty questions on the test and faulty estimates of one's actual PSAT score in the scoring. The way to get a reality check on this would be to try a genuine PSAT/NMSQT practice test (the high school counseling office should have one) under test time limits. </p>
<p>But everything said above about how a teenage boy simply needs to learn to read and to apply effort to learning to thrive in college would still apply. My third son is playing a computer game with my daughter right now, but I keep after all my children to learn to read, read to them, and encourage them to read on their own as they grow up. Today's high school curricula are adapted to a nonreading generation of students, and the estimate</a> of informed scholars is that half of all college-eligible high school students are not truly college-ready, an estimate that is well confirmed by college</a> graduation rates. </p>
<p>Best wishes to the OP's son.</p>
<p>TokenAdult,
That's a good point about using the real tests. DS took one of those ersatz test-prep exams (timed, in the school cafeteria, cost $10 and a Saturday AM) and his scores bore little resemblance to reality. Of course, it's in the test-prepper's financial interest for you NOT to shine on their test! On the other hand, DS took the practice PSAT that came with his official registration materials from school, and his score was within one point of his actual PSAT.</p>
<p>At DS1's school, Kaplan administered the PSAT (one of their practice versions) for free to all the 9th graders -- in exchange for getting first crack at the parents when the scores came in. In 10th, the kids took the same PSAT as the juniors.</p>
<p>Our school district has the same indecent relationship with the Kaplan company. Because I was trying to decide last year whether my son should have a declared grade skip, and also whether he should apply to a boarding school, we had him take the GENUINE PSAT/NMSQT last year, as an eighth grader. That is very rare, of course, and our request completely flummoxed our local school district at first. But the school counselors checked with the College Board and found out, as I expected, that any student of a younger age can take the PSAT/NMSQT--all it takes is "a heartbeat and a check," as the saying goes. Our conclusion after the testing was that we don't have to rush our son through his secondary schooling, although we do have to do a lot of unusual arrangements to keep him academically challenged, especially in math. I agree that the main reason test prep companies offer "free" (= loss-leader) PSAT practice tests is to reel in customers, not to provide useful information to parents about how their kids are doing.</p>