My sophomore took a diagnostic SAT test 1320 (610 reading/710 math). He went in blind, no study, no look up for format etc before.
Does it worth it for him to study for PSAT for national merit beginning of junior year. I am not sure how high/low he is compared with those candidates.
Thanks!
YES! It is definitely worth prepping for the PSAT, especially if your student plans to apply to any test-blind schools (the California public U’s). The reason why is that if your student gets an award (commendation, semi-finalist, finalist) it goes on his application as an award. That award tells the schools that your student tests high on standardized tests, which are a good indication that your student is ready for the most challenging college level work. Also, there are some schools that offer significant merit aid for those who are finalists.
My kids said that prepping for the SAT (and prepping for the PSAT is basically the same thing) yielded the most improvement at the last minute for their college applications. Only ten hours of math review brought one of my kid’s math score up by 100 points, from the 600s to the 700s. Another of my kids put in 60 hours of prep time for the ACT and got a nearly perfect score. If your son is motivated, you don’t need to buy an expensive tutoring program. Just get him some SAT prep books, and help him make a schedule for self-prep. His score is in the ball park for making national merit, if he does a lot of self-prep for the PSAT, which will also prepare him for the SAT.
Just want to state why the UC’s pulled out of the National Merit Scholarship program in 2005.
The University of California announced Wednesday that its campuses will stop participating in the National Merit Scholarship program, contending that the annual competition doesn’t fairly assess academic talent.
M.R.C. Greenwood, the UC system’s provost, said during a telephone news conference that UC bases its undergraduate admissions on a wide variety of academic and personal accomplishments. By contrast, Greenwood said, “The National Merit Scholarship program uses the score on the PSAT to eliminate the vast majority of students from further consideration in their process. This particular procedure of theirs is just not consistent with our own academic principles and policies.”
@parentologist
So although an applicant can list NM commended, semi-finalist or finalist on their awards section of the UC application, how much of impact this award has on their acceptance is not provided. Remember the UC’s utilize 13 areas of criteria when reviewing applications so it is a comprehensive review so one area or in this case award will not have a major impact on the overall acceptance/rejection of any applicant. UC’s are an isolated example since there are many schools that will offer perks to National Merit award winners so just trying to make sure that applicants understand that nothing can be inferred in regards to NM status at least for the UC’s.
@beyeu107 i would definitely sign him up for a PSAT/SAT prep course. Khan Academy is free, plenty of local places offer test prep or purchase books from Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Prep needs to be consistent, not ‘crashing’ just prior to testing.
Good luck!
Test-blind schools like California public universities are unlikely to give significant weight to an award that is mainly based on standardized testing.
Doing well on standardized tests is probably best as a predictor for doing well on other similar standardized tests. This may be important (for example) to pre-law students who eventually need to take the LSAT to apply to law school, even if they apply to and attend test-blind or test-optional colleges.
The National Merit selection index = (2 * RW + M) / 10. So if he gets 610 RW / 710 M, it would give a selection index of 193.
The threshold score for Semifinalist varies by state; recent thresholds have been between 207 and 223. This may give him an idea of how much he would need to improve to reach the threshold score.
If he chooses to take the PSAT to try for National Merit, he may want to try a released PSAT under test conditions and then check what types of questions he needs to focus preparation on, so that he can do preparation efficiently.
If he has a reasonable chance of getting National Merit Semifinalist, there is a chance of it turning into a scholarship winner. The non school ones are usable at any school, so there is an expected financial value. If he is planning on taking the SAT, you can schedule a SAT soon after the PSAT and use the studying for both.