I have seen this data from College Board on the percentile ranks by gender and race/ethnicity, but it never fails to remind me of how much my son has been given to test so well. I agree that at a certain score, most of the outcomes pretty much end up the same. After my son talked to some friends about the test on Saturday, he is feeling pretty confident in what he did and believes he will be done with the ACT. His middle of the road prediction (E -2, M -1, R -5, S -1) makes me think he got a 34 composite no matter how it ends up being scaled if his estimates are correct, but he knows it could be slightly better or worse next week when scores come back.
Let us know how he did, now we are all curious!
The scores have come in this morning. My son made a 35 composite (35E, 34M, 34R, 36S). Unbelievable. His school is offering a SAT prep class for free that he is going to take, so he had decided to not take the SAT and just take the PSAT on 10/10. To be honest, I didn’t really believe he would put it all together for this test because he had been so busy dealing with his junior year classes the 2 weeks leading up to the ACT.
Presumably, he knows that the 11th grade PSAT is the important one for National Merit qualification, which could lead to more scholarship opportunities, right?
@ucbalumnus He has been preparing for the NMSF qualifying test for a long time. Last year he got a 1390 (650 EBRW, 740 M) and he had 11 questions that he left blank due to running out of time between the the English and Reading sections of the PSAT (He has gotten much faster since then). If he had gotten 8 to 9 of those 11 right, I believe he would have been at the cutoff in our state last year. He will take a timed practice PSAT on September 29th and then just work on his areas of weakness before the PSAT. Georgia has become a higher scoring state (220 Index the last couple of years) so he knows what he has to do. He is shooting for a 1480 (740 EBRW, 740 M for a 222 index) or higher to be comfortable.
He did it! You must be ecstatic! Congrats on the fantastic score!
Thank you CC family for your input, encouragement and expertise. PSAT in October, SAT sometime early next year if PSAT score is at 220 Index or higher, along with summer program applications, building up EC’s, SAT subject tests, and handling 11th Grade class load. This is going to be a fun school year for my son:)
Congrats @ChangeTheGame
That’s fabulous. Definitely a high enough score. 
Woohoo! Congrats to him! He’s done.
Awesome news! That must be a big relief. Good for your son for putting in the work prior to PSAT. My S19 just missed the cutoff for GA and I wish he would have studied more (some) ahead of time. I’m guessing your son will improve a lot this year on the PSAT since he really got the timing down for the ACT. That will help a lot!
Update: My son took a practice PSAT last weekend and ended up with a 218 Index (36 Reading, 36 English, and 37 Math) X 2. He missed 9 questions (-4 R, -3 E, -2 M) and the final goal is to miss no more than 4 questions between Reading and English or to possibly hit perfection in the Math section to give him a little more leeway. It is going to be very close.
Good luck! Keep us posted.
On Wednesday…give your son a good breakfast and a nice hug. Then let this all go. He will have done his best.
@thumper1 I have already moved on in a way. He has prepped (he is funny in his exactly 15 minutes a day routine) and I don’t think there is anything left to do but take the test. NMSF would just be a possible icing on the cake as nothing can lower my own high from his ACT score:)
Well, there may be significant amounts of college money attached to NMF, which NMSF is a prerequisite for.
@ucbalumnus The problem right now is that he really doesn’t have any big money NMF schools on his list (besides FAMU which he would probably still get a full ride from regardless). He thinks he did very well on PSAT so he would added a school or 2 if he got the NMSF designation, but I think he would still choose from his current list (He did add CalTech to his list which he really liked after going to a small group session recently). I am not to worried about the money right now (it almost feels like he is a recruited athlete the way some schools are treating his ACT score) as I think he will get full ride offers from some of his safety schools.
ACT will be accepted as confirming for NMF for class of 2020. He may have no need to take SAT in the fall.
I saw that this morning. That is awesome news about being able to use the ACT for possible NMF confirmation for the class of 2020. No more standardized test worries until SAT Subject Tests in June now.
@ChangeTheGame : What a riveting ride, this thread. Awesome.
As always, I am fascinated by the level of detail and stats information so many people here can pull on, and found your level of awareness of all the in’s and out’s of your son’s walk forward both exhaustive and inspiring. ( In reading about your son I truly forgot our kids are in the same grade, headed toward college at the same time. I kept thinking, “Oh, when my son gets to that point, we’ll have to try that approach/strategy.”)
This thread, to repeat, is awesome. Your son sounds awesome, and confident.
Here’s to having college interviewers who put him at ease and show a real interest in him when the time comes. To your son.