Oh, do not get me wrong, D. also took a prep. class at her HS, she said that it was complete waste of her time (…and our money). She did not do as well on SAT as on ACT. The key was her personalized plan to prepare for ACT and the science section. But she knew that it is not possible for her to get a 36 because of her predictable low score in Reading.
me29034, impressive improvement! Hope that tutor is well paid!
Yes, I will admit that my kids are good at standardized tests. I remember my 1st grade son was in a 3rd grade math class and was doing some practice for the state 3rd grade tests. He was looking over his shoulder at one point and he was getting answers faster than I could. I asked him what he was doing for one problem, and he said, “Oh I could tell from the last digit, that this was the only one that could be the right answer.” I knew then we probably wouldn’t need to worry about him and tests.
My D. was much better at standardized tests, when they did not include Reading / Verbal section. Unfortunately, she had to wait for Medical Board exams for that.
I remember it in high school as being thought of as a “practice” SAT. It really did not do anything for college admission (except perhaps attract mail from colleges if you score highly), though it was then and now the qualifier for National Merit. There was not a lot of awareness of National Merit scholarships then, so there was not a lot of (or any) prepping for the PSAT then.
S and D got used copies of old test prep books at our local library book sale, and both said they were helpful, but neither spent more than a half-day with them. Both got perfect scores. So, not bad for a $1 investment each, and supporting our local library.
There were lots of them so it would seem to me that it was not uncommon in our area for students to use prep books. There are a number of private tutors in our area who advertise with flyers in the library and in the school - so someone must be using tutors. One of D’s friends went to a test prep review class in the next town over, and reported it to be a complete waste of time, better suited to the kids who needed help going from 1200 to 1400 or 1500 / 2400.
NMF is extremely important for us. We are not looking at selective schools at all. We are following the merit money trail .
Luckily my daughter is very practical and understands what merit money can do for both of us. So prep will be a serious undertaking. At this time, the prep business has yet to come to West Texas. So it will most likely be self study.
I also knew kids who prepped for the SAT back in the 70’s. Stanley Kaplan was expensive, so the high school calculus teacher created his own SAT prep class. A lot of kids took it and improved their scores - it wasn’t uncommon to take it twice. I knew about the PSAT, because my older brother was NMF, but I still didn’t study (got Commended much to my mother’s disappointment). The school didn’t make a big thing out of the exam. Back then, NMF didn’t net as much scholarship money as it does now. I don’t know the exact dollar amount of the NMF award; it was nice chunk of a change back then but I don’t think colleges were handing out full scholarships to NMF’s…
When D. applied, only one college on her list really cared about NMF. D. was not any close to NMF, she did not study for PSAT, she took it without prep. She attended in very selective program at in-state public on full tuition Merit award based on her GPA and ACT score.
If you are an NMF, then, apply to school that put heavy weight on this as many do not. Research should be based on specifics of each student and it is helpful to have time for it, mine took me about 2 years.
When I first heard about PSAT years ago when my D1 was a freshmen/sophomore in HS, I thought that would be something worth to do as a practice for SAT but not really realistic to be a finalist and receive scholarship. My D took the pre-PSAT practice in 10th grade and scored 20-30 points below the state cutoff (forgot the exact number). We did not think she would be qualified for NMSF in a year. After she prepared for the SAT over the summer before junior year, she got 5 points above the state cutoff in PSAT and qualified. From the schools she applied and accepted, only Northwestern has a $2000 scholarship for NMF and UMN-TC offered her a generous scholarship indirectly related to her NMSF status. The other schools does not care about NMF status but most do offer great scholarships based on GPA and test scores. It is nice that many schools offer automatic scholarships to NMF. In many cases, it is indeed easier to be an NMF than getting non-NMF scholarships. If one prep early and do well in PSAT, one may find safety schools a lot easier as many schools would become affordable.
My company have between $8000-$10000 for NMSF. That’s a pretty good incentive to prep for the PSAT. One kid got it.