@thshadow What concordance tables are you looking at? The one I see at CB doesn’t even have 22 pages:
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/2015-psat-nmsqt-concordance-tables.pdf
That link was from here:
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/psat-nmsqt-psat-10/k12-educators/psat-nmsqt-concordance-tables
@thshadow OK, I think I found the one you referred to where the total to total concordance is on p. 22, but it looks to be the same as the one I posted above. I see old 223 concording to new 1520 on that page, and 1470 concording to 210-211. https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/2015-psat-nmsqt-understanding-scores.pdf
So I thought the school was holding the info because they wanted to wait until the Press Release Date. But, no, no one can find the letter from the National Merit Foundation. And the school can not request another until 2 weeks after the initial mailing ( Aug. 23). Uggh. Thanks to all of your reporting, we are happy knowing that my DD made the cut for NMSF. Could someone please confirm the essay question so that she can begin working on it over the long weekend? Extra long for us with school closure tomorrow with Tropical Storm ( possibly Hurricane) Hermine.
@floridamomof3 Adam who is smART’s colleague over at the site-which-shall-go-unnamed has the essay question prompt in one of his comments (today I think).
Here it is as well, but I got it off this thread from a previous poster:
STUDENT ESSAY: To help the reviewers get to know you, describe an experience you have had, a person who has influenced you, or an obstacle you have overcome. Explain why this is meaningful to you. Use your own words and limit your response to the space below.
So, how do we account for the AZ score of 219? I know that one of the state’s largest districts paid for all tenth and eleventh grade students to take the PSAT. Admittedly, not good at stats and test analysis, but could that be a factor?
Just reread my earlier post. Have a typo. In with a 220, not 224, in IN.
Congrats to all of the NMSF and hugs to those who were waiting but didn’t get good news. Regardless of NM status, our kids will do great things at whatever schools are fortunate to have them as students!
Time to finish up the applications and enjoy senior year!!
My posts are very limited over the next couple weeks so I need to choose carefully. If you need info. just PM me because I’m still able to do that. Here’s my comment for the next 150 seconds (actually longer but who’s counting?)
smART has a great article on how ACT just killed the SAT in terms of number of test takers. Check it out:
http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/how-act-is-beating-the-sat-among-top-scorers/
@rb681000 - interesting. I have a concordance table printout on my desk. Probably from early in the year. Not “updated”.
But I just looked at:
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/2015-psat-nmsqt-concordance-tables.pdf
That table is quite different.
The one I have makes sense. But the updated one seems way too harsh!!
I can see why people were confused about my statements that 217 → 1450. That’s what my table says. But the updated one says 217 → 1500…
:-/
@EarlVanDorn At my kid’s school, they have a policy of allowing (not mandatory) Honors/AP kids to sign up to take practice PSAT tests in 9th and 10th grades. But other than that – which I think helps – not many kids study for PSAT. My kid didn’t study for PSAT at all. One reason why my kid made the cutoff in CA is because many “smart” kids are STEM oriented kids who generally do better in math section of PSAT.
I have seen too many kids who don’t have good standardized tests scores earn really good grades at school, so for me, I do not think general standardized tests such as SAT/ACT should be used for college admission purposes, or if used, should carry little weight. Conversely, I do not think personal essays should carry that much weight also because some lazy kids can BS his or her way into schools. I am glad that UC colleges changed personal essay format to several short prompt questions that are designed to elicit direct info on students, rather than have them describe finding meaning of life in playing online games for example. It’s ironic because I was able to BS my way into Ivy League schools with 3.0 GPA when I was young, so now I find myself preaching against what I used to practice. Lol
And some schools inflate their grades so its often times easy to get high GPAs. So if you knock out SAT/ACT, GPAs and essays, what is left to determine admissions? Height?
FYI the preliminary concordance tables from early 2016 were replaced by the “final” ones from May and therefore scrubbed from the internet. I have copies only because I printed out the Understanding PSAT document in January.
At our kid’s HS, all 9th-11th graders take the PSAT each year. They used to have 10th graders take the PLAN, but now it’s just the PSAT. About 5-6% of each class become NMF each year. I don’t have any idea if kids are studying for the PSAT, but I think quite a few 11th graders are taking the SAT around the same time, so many are probably studying for that.
It looks like I have the “preliminary” table. The URL was:
https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/psat-nmsqt-preliminary-concordance-tables-2015.pdf
But that doesn’t work anymore.
Here’s a link I found to a copy of it:
https://www.siprep.org/uploaded/counseling/PSAT/psat-nmsqt-preliminary-concordance-tables-2015.pdf
(Edit: I guess I’m echoing what @Mamelot said)
I expect PSAT cutoff scores to go up higher because prep companies will know better what needs to be done. My kid took old SAT and then new PSAT. He found the old format tricky and not as substantive; in other words, he found old SAT/PSAT’s questions confusing and not direct.
@thshadow That makes a lot more sense to me, at least at the top end. I think their new SAT to old SAT concordance is screwed up too, with the new ERW score concording to too low of an old score.
I would like to point out that PSAT scoring system makes it very hard on kids who recently immigrated to US to qualify as NMSFs because a higher level of English language ability takes some time to be acquired unless the student immigrated from a country in which English is spoken. This was one reason I could never have qualified for NMF when I went to high school.
@Proudpatriot - I’m almost 100% my child attends the same school as your son. Are you 100% certain of the 217 cutoff. I can’t find any other posts confirming your report. I was at the school today for something else and stopped into guidance to ask. They were very tight lipped. Of course, my kid is sitting on a 216.
FWIW, DS took the SAT back in March because we thought he might need to confirm for NM (looks like he does, yay!) and he got a 1500 and said it was the easiest standardized test he’d ever taken, far easier than the ACT. He was kind of surprised because he expected the SAT to be more of a challenge. Sounds to me like they’re dumbing it down, and the PSAT SIs make it seem like they’re dumbing down the PSAT too.
@G8tr2mom-I am fairly certain that the FL cutoff is 217. When I sent an email to the GC she didn’t tell me anything but the next day my son knew that the cutoff was 217. He works for the company that does the PSAT prep but I don’t think that is where he found out the cutoff. I think he found out from Guidance.
He is at work now but when he gets home I will ask him for more details. BTW-he told me the school had fifty something NMSF which is similar to other years.
@websensation As I said in my post, a number of Mississippi school districts are using a year-long prep class, and these schools saw their number of NMSF skyrocket. To have 39 kids score a 30 or higher on the ACT and only have two NMSF is pretty weak, particularly for a relatively low cutoff state.
As I said, my son bears much of the blame, since he didn’t spend very much time preparing. But my view is that the purpose of a high school is to push students to reach their full potential, particularly when hundreds of thousands of dollars are at state. You can bet they wouldn’t let a top football player just sit around and not develop himself. My son has a 35 on the ACT, by the way, so more class time devoted to prep would have done the trick for him and many others.