<p>The ACT has only really become popular where I am in the past 3 years or so. My oldest son didn’t even take it. I tried to get PLAN testing for my current soph but my SD doesn’t offer it.</p>
<p>Until about 5 years ago, only juniors were allowed to take the PSAT. A woman whose D eventually went to an Ivy demanded that sophs be allowed to take it, too. They tried to limit it to honors/AP kids but that didn’t go over well.</p>
<p>My current senior does horribly on writing portions so he got a commended status in last year’s testing. If there was no writing part, he would have had 149/160 and might have gone further in the competition. I believe the 10th grade practice test helped him.</p>
<p>I am having my current soph take the test Saturday. He’s very dyslexic so I applied for and received accommodations for him. I want him to check out how the accommodations work for him before the test actually counts.</p>
<p>We are in a ACT-dominated state. This year our urban public district (with historically few NMSFs) changed the way they administer prep tests. Now freshmen take the EXPLORE, sophomores the PLAN, and only juniors take the PSAT. The district pays for all the tests. Evidently the goal is to increase ACT scores, but I think this new system is going to result in even fewer NMSFs. It’s hard to make the cutoff when you are taking the test cold.</p>
<p>From what I understand, this is the first year that the state of TX has paid for all the juniors to take the test (or at least at low income schools like ours). I think, with more kids taking the test, that the NMSF cutoff score for TX should drop. Maybe that will help kids like mine, who were slightly below the cutoff when they took it soph year.</p>
<p>My freshman S took CoGAT yesterday while sophomores and juniors took their PSAT(optional). This was the last of three CoGATs he would take (First one was in 5th grade and second was in 7th). He had EXPLORE in either 7th or 8th grade, I can’t remember. The district’s original plan was to administer PLAN instead of PSAT for the sophomores, but it was later decided to resume PSAT due to NMF achievements. Sophomores will still take PLAN at a different date.</p>
<p>Our HS used to have the top 90 students in each class (top 20%) take the PLAN as freshman, PSAT as sophomores (and then again as juniors), ACT as Juniors and again as Seniors if they wanted to try for better scores. School paid for PSAT’s and PLAN.</p>
<p>Since last year, this group was re-absorbed into the testing schedule of the majority - EXPLORE freshman year, PLAN sophomore year, PSAT and ACT Junior year, optional ACT senior year. School has always paid for all except ACT tests. </p>
<p>Hubbie and I are friendly with the principal, who indicated this change was made to improve the school’s average scores - keeping the advanced kids in their own class to improve the class stats. We think this actually hurts the high flyers, who don’t get the same chance to retake the PSAT (and potentially score better) that is offered by many other high ranking HS’s.</p>
<p>No PLAN testing here. Some of the local elite privates do this in soph/jr year. The PSATs are mandatory and paid for in the soph & jr years. As similar test is given in the fresh year by Kaplan as a diagnostic tool and readiness for kids in honors/pre-AP English classes. I too find it odd that some schools pay for soph year but not jr year. We found the Kaplan useless, but the soph and jr PSATs very useful as a predictor and diagnostic of where to put prep efforts and to familiarize our kids with the test format.</p>
<p>Interesting @ sunndayfun… Our kids identified as ‘gifted’ take the COGAT’s at the end of 3rd grade as a weeder to move on to the upper level gifted program for the remainder of their time in the public school system (4th-12th grade). From what I remember it measures how you think, not what you know…total opposite of the PSATs/SATs. It was the first time our youngest was really noticed as he got a perfect score…kind of knocked everyone for a loop, including us. They don’t administer the COGATs beyond that.</p>
<p>I think our new district-mandated sequence of EXPLORE, PLAN, PSAT is going to hurt everyone. It will hurt high achievers by denying them sophomore exposure to the PSAT and it will hurt everyone’s ACT scores that they are so desperate to bring up. I am unclear on the benefits of taking the EXPLORE in 9th grade. I always thought that was geared toward younger students. Why not take the PLAN in 9th and offer the PSAT in both 10th and 11th?</p>
<p>I’m not familiar with the EXPLORE GeminiMom, however I would agree that taking the PLAN in 9th and PSAT in 10th & 11th is a good option. Can you petition to have your student sit for the exams if you offer to pay?</p>
<p>blueiguana – this change happened after my kids were done with the PSAT, but I am thinking of lobbying the district anyway. According to ACT.org, “EXPLORE is an educational assessment students usually take in eighth grade” but it is also offered in 9th. It evidently features a career exploration component as well. I’m not impressed by what I’ve seen.</p>
<p>@GeminiMom-I agree. Maybe the parents in your district can approach schools to voice their concerns? That was what happened in our district an joint effort of concerned parents, teachers, counselors and principles to have PSAT resumed at sophomore year.</p>
<p>@BI-Our district also uses CogAT as one of tests to identify gifted and talented students at any grade level. Parents or teachers can have their students tested (in addition to the three mandated tests) if they think the kids are gifted and talented. The test identifies reasoning strength or weakness in language use (verbal) and math (quantitatives) and helps the educators to gain views of congitive abilities.</p>
<p>sunnydayfun – did your district agree to reinstate the PSAT for sophomores because they had past success with NMSFs? Our district has had so few NMSFs in recent years that they may figure it’s not worth the effort. That will not deter me from speaking up, though!</p>
<p>Just had a quick chat with my D about the PSATs on Saturday. She has a drama club rehearsal afterwards so I told her I would give her lunch money and she and the other juniors could go out for pizza between the test and the rehearsal. She then told me that a lot of juniors aren’t taking it. I thought that was strange. We don’t administer ACT, PLAN, or any of those other acronym tests many have mentioned (never even heard of anything except ACT and SAT) so this is the only warmup for SAT. (The only state required test is a state test given in the spring of junior year which students are required to pass for graduation; it has nothing to do with college.) As I mentioned in a previous post, it is offered only on Saturday morning, parents pay, but I was still surprised that many parents seemed to view it as optional. Our HS is considered a very good (though not top) public high school, sends 1-2 kids a year to the Ivies, upwards of 90% go on to college. So I find this very surprising. Perhaps a reflection of the guidance department not pushing it?</p>
<p>@ eastcoast - perhaps a disconnect of the guidance dept not fully communicating the benefits of making NMF to the parents. A lot can be demographics…either the kids don’t score high enough to qualify so there is low importance (sounds like that may not be the case if it’s a competitive school), or the general community doesn’t benefit (or chase) these types of scholarships. Some kids that go to Ivy’s for instance waive full NMF scholarships at lower ranked schools if the family can pay full freight while not qualifying for aid. IMHO it is unfair if your GC’s are making the decision that their families are not interested and not putting this forward as a very viable option.</p>
<p>I could also be totally off base, but this did come to mind.</p>
<p>At least 1.1 million sophomores took the PSAT in 2010. This compares with about 1.5 million juniors who took the PSAT and are eligible for NM in 2011.</p>
<p>If it helps, I took the PSAT as a sophomore for practice and ended up winning a scholarship from National Merit and pretty much a full ride from the university I chose (I’m now a senior). I think it was very good practice, but I was the only sophomore at my school taking it and not many juniors took it either. My school had one other National Merit Finalist in my year, though.</p>