<p>Just catching up on my CC reading after a very busy weekend (for my daughter), which included the PSATs on Saturday. My daughter is one of those “right-brained” kind of kids who struggles with standardized tests, despite being an A student in school. So her reaction when she walked out of the tests was a surprise (and relief). She was very matter-of-fact, (felt the verbal was harder than last year but the math was easier than she expected), and there was none of the hand-wringing angst of last year. Her plans for today include “hugging my pre-calc teacher for helping me so much this year”. I don’t know if her reaction reflects better preparation or greater maturity, but it was nice to pick up a whole kid, rather than the pieces of one scattered all over (like last year!)</p>
<p>My younger kid took PSAT as a sophomore. Well he has a football pratice afterwords. He says math was easy. Verbal was okay but has some problem with grammar as he was not sure. He did look a PSAT books for an hour. In his school probably 30-40% kids take PSAT as a sophomore. I can not tell about feshman.</p>
<p>My sophomore (who is a very good test taker) thought the test was relatively easy. He had done the practice test Friday after school before he headed out for marching band at the football game. The kids on CC said the Wednesday test seemed to be harder than the practice test so he was expecting it to be worse than it was. He said there were a few CR he wasn’t sure of but overall he thought it was as easy as the practice, which could mean a bad curve. And of course he could be way off in his assessment. We’ll see. He wanted to do well to boost his application for a summer program.</p>
<p>Our school requires the PSAT for our sophomores in the honors program, and we always end up with a lot of NM finalists the next year, but whether this is because they practice it as sophomores or simply because of the calibre of students I can’t say. I was looking at a boys prep school site while searching for something and they require their students to begin taking the PSAT in 8th grade! I think both of my boys would have rebelled at 4 years of PSAT.</p>
<p>At my Girl Scout troop meeting yesterday, “laconic” was a big topic for discussion.</p>
<p>At my son’s high school, all sophs and jrs are assumed to be taking the PSAT. You can choose not to but you have to submit a request. Mind you, each class is 900-1000 students each so you can imagine the havoc that causes - there are not enough classrooms available for both testing and regular classes so classes are suspended and other programs put in place. FWIW, my soph son thought the math was easy and the verbal a little tougher. We’ll see how well his assessment matches up with his scores - never quite does for regular tests!</p>
<p>We’ll see how well his assessment matches up with his scores - never quite does for regular tests!>></p>
<p>Fredo, Isn’t that the truth? My daughter almost always tells me she did “great” on tests…until she gets the results. ;)</p>
<p>Has anyone else taken a look at the College Board’s new online test preparation program? I learned about it from their new Official New SAT Prep Book (which replaces the old "10 Real SATs) - If you buy the book, they will “score” your bubble section of the practice tests for you online and give you a report similiar to what they provide with the real PSAT/SAT regarding weaknesses/strengths. The online test prep program will actually score your essays for you and give you more detailed info. about answers to the book’s questions. Cost of book: under $20. Cost of online prep: $69 (you get $10 off if you buy the book) Just wondering what everyone else thinks of this.</p>
<p>Celebrian (up-topic), mileage varies at public schools: at my D’s public school, 9th and 10th graders both were encouraged to take the PSAT and 11th graders were generally expected to.</p>
<p>Carolyn -
I thought of … Monopoly. Then, I wondered about how the essay would actually be scored.</p>
<p>Ohio Mom, according to the College Board web site, it will be scored by computer using the standards that the “real” evaluators will use. Which, of course, gives me pause.</p>
<p>Carolyn, I hadn’t read this during our recent correspondence, and I didn’t realize it was your original posting until today. I’m so glad to hear that your D has a positive attitude about this. Both you and she seem have the right outlook. Best wishes to her!</p>