<p>I was told that scores in the 700’s are good, but here it seems that a 750 and over is good.</p>
<p>The tutor is trying to convince us to do round 2 of SAT/ ACT in March and April instead of in January/ February. He feels she could use a break after the December tests. My daughter refuses to wait because she just wants this to be over and she does not want the tests interfering with AP testing ( studying).</p>
<p>Those subject tests charts always baffle me. If an 800 doesn’t give you a 99% score and a 700 generally lands you down at the 50-60th percentile, how do you know what’s “good?” The languages crack me up, particularly Chinese and Korean. An 800 in Mandarin lands you in the 64th percentile and by 780 you are already at the 38th percentile. Several of D’s friends speak Mandarin at home as their first language and took the AP class/exam and the SAT subject test. One was complaining to her that she only got a 780 and it was very frustrating. Lol!! I am SO glad that D will not take this test and will only reach the AP level in her senior year. She loves studying Mandarin and I hope she will continue studying it in college, but I’m very glad she doesn’t have to take that test!</p>
<p>We were recommended by our tutors to take back to back tests- the kids already have momentum from studying/ reviewing. Take test 1, review wrong answers, keep studying, take test 2. Interesting how different tutors have different preferences. Hard to remember these people are in the business to make money.</p>
<p>Sally my daughter and I agree with you- we are already in the momentum so let’s just keep going. He DID say that his last day ( for now anyway) will be December 13 ( the day before the ACT) and was not suggesting that I keep him around until April. Can you imagine? We will stop on the 13th and then do a small " tune up" two weeks before the January SAT. </p>
<p>During the December break I am going to have her do one subtest each day to stay in the momentum. The tutor told us of a kid several years ago who got an 800 on the CR section but his father did not like his math score so he re- took the entire SAT to increase the math. His CR went down to a 720 because of 3 missed questions. It seems that once you break through the 700 barrier luck plays a role and each question is worth more. </p>
<p>I think she is ready to take the tests. Bring them on!!!</p>
<p>Have any of your kids reported being barraged by e-mails from colleges? S has received a few pieces of mail in the past week or so, but the e-mails are just flooding in.</p>
<p>We didn’t have this experience with D as she opted out of communications from colleges both on tests and at HS. I only found out later that she might have received offers for free college apps, so I advised S to opt in. </p>
<p>Wondering what this is based on. He took PLAN last year. Score was OK, but not stellar, has since had prep and practice tests look very good, but has not taken ACT yet. Took PSAT in October, but no SAT yet.</p>
<p>No top 20 schools, but several state schools like UMN-Twin Cities, IU and branch campuses around Midwest where we live. A bunch of privates-St.Olaf, Drake, Marquette, UMiami(Fla). Schools I never heard of- Lewis and Clark, Northern Iowa. List goes on and on. Some have e-mailed him several times. Could they be doing this based on last year’s PLAN?? Or asking HS for lists of kids with good grades(he has 4.0)? Does anyone know? Hard for me to believe UMiami is coming to our high school to get lists. Maybe some schools send to everyone who takes these tests?</p>
<p>Yes my daughter has been getting tons of emails and regular mailings from several high level schools. I have no clue how they got her information or what they are basing it on. She took the PLAN sophomore year and did very well, but are they really buying 10th grade PLAN tests? She also did well on the SAT 11’s but again, these tests were taken in 9th and 10th grade. Are they buying those names from College Board? Johns Hopkins seems to be emailing her on a weekly basis. I almost want to call them and ask them to stop unless they plan on giving her money. I had no idea that the University of Chicago was a good school ( never heard of it until last year) until I mentioned to my neighbor that they keep sending my kid mail. I hear that they send a lot of mail so I am not reading much into this. </p>
<p>We got a postcard last year from a group of schools ( Hopkins, Emory, U of California-Berkley and U of Virginia) inviting her to a " special program" discussing admissions to these schools. The weird part about all of this is that she has NOT taken the SAT or the ACT. She has only taken the PLAN and two subject tests ( and the PSAT but that was recent).</p>
<p>I’ve never figured out the college mailing thing. My oldest didn’t check the box and my middle son did, and they both got about the same amount of mail/email, which was a lot less than some people report. It’s a mystery to me. So far, S’15 has gotten some but not a ton. Miami of Ohio, IU of Kokomo, U of Chicago, and Harvey Mudd seem to be sending the most. LOL. Two that he’s not interested in and two he’s got no hope of getting into!</p>
<p>OK, I answered my own question about college e-mail. I poked around on CB website last night. You can start reading about the SSS(Student Search Service) here:
[Student</a> Search Service User Guide](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools)</p>
<p>I see that S got into the system via his AP Calc test last year, hadn’t thought of that.
It’s quite amazing. Colleges can limit their orders by a multitude of criteria simultaneously. They can do it by state, zip code, high school cluster, gender, ethnic background, religion, particular test dates, etc. For academic, there is self-reported GPA, or class rank for the tests that ask about that, or test score ranges for any or all of their tests, AP included. CB removes graduating seniors from their lists.</p>
<p>Yesterday my D received a request to join a CB focus group because she did such a great job on the PSAT. “We’d like you to participate in a groundbreaking study that will help us create new academic opportunities for students in your community. We want you to share your experiences and opinions with us so that we can better understand how to help gifted African American high school students across the country.” I’m not going to read anything into this. My D PSAT was ok last year and we haven’t received the scores for this year. We aren’t expecting to meet the 223 cutoff for MD.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback on my questions about recommendations everyone. I appreciate it.</p>
<p>My D seems to get the most random emails from colleges. Some think she is a senior this year, but we can’t figure out why. </p>
<p>4CookieMonster, I have to admit that receiving that request would definitely raise my hopes for the PSAT results.</p>
<p>suzy100, I don’t know what to think about the CB request and try not to read anything into this or the mailings.</p>
<p>D tells me that she gets quite a bit of email (I don’t see it), but the mailings have actually calmed down (we received a bunch after summer visits and perhaps AP exams). I suspect that they’ll start up again with PSAT.</p>
<p>D’12 didn’t check the box (or opted out? I don’t remember which) and didn’t get a lot of US Mail. D’15 did the opposite. We’ll see if it makes any difference.</p>
<p>4cookie…Hopefully the CB request equates to good news for D. Based on your post, I’m assuming your D is AA. If her score doesn’t happen to meet MD’s cutoff score for National Merit, would it possibly meet the regional cutoff for National Achievement? I don’t know what types of schools she might be interested in, but many of the universities that offer large NM scholarships also offer the same packages for NA students.</p>
<p>ETA: Browsing through an NA thread from this year’s participants, it looks like cutoffs for NA may be done by state now as opposed to region like it was in previous years. Not sure what MD’s NA cutoff was this past year, but still looking.</p>
<p>4cookie – Congratulations! That’s very intriguing.</p>
<p>@4cookie, I went to check our mail. there is no letter like that. sniff. That’s a nice letter to get! :)</p>
<p>My D. gets so much junk. She probably checked boxes she shouldn’t have. </p>
<p>Thanks all for comments on rec letters everyone!</p>
<p>Can I just say that I think it’s irritating that CB may have already sold our kids’ score ranges when the kids themselves haven’t had the chance to see them?? </p>
<p>4cookie, I hope it means good things. :)</p>
<p>My D reported that her gpa is determined on a 5 point scale. It is NOT. I think she got this idea because it’s possible to have a gpa that exceeds 4.0. For a smart girl…</p>
<p>Well, this may cut down on the amount of mail that comes her way, lol.</p>
<p>You all are so funny. According to D practice PSAT, she was scoring within the range for NA. </p>
<p>Luckily my D really likes our state flagship. My problem is that it’s less than 15 minutes away. If she receives a full ride, I’ll quickly forget about that. D just started looking. She wants a school in or close to an urban area with a preference to more than 2,000 students. She likes UPenn. She didn’t have any real reaction to Barnard or Columbia. I’m planning a trip to U of Miami if February. Miami in February, I don’t know if the visit is for her or me. It really is a lot less pressure when you know your child would be happy at her state school.</p>
<p>4Cookie…While you’re down in Miami, you might consider taking a look at Florida International Univ. Should your D’s PSAT score make her eligible for NM/NA competition, FIU offers full rides (possibly capped at 15 credits per semester) for finalists in either competition.</p>
<p>[Scholarships</a> - Costs & Aid - Florida International University - FIU](<a href=“Cost & Aid | Admissions | Florida International University”>Cost & Aid | Admissions | Florida International University)</p>
<p>3girls - that’s funny. Reminded of my D’s old Spanish test when she answered all questions using English and got an “E” on the test. She went to see the teacher and the teacher told her “this is a Spanish class, what did you expect?” I remember thinking the same thing… “For a smart girl…” :)</p>
<p>cookie - Congrats! I think it’s a great sign.</p>
<p>3girls that is very funny that your D reported that her GPA is on a 5 point scale when it is not. I suppose it’s probably a good thing that she is not obsessed with how GPAs are weighted. </p>
<p>We have not gotten any mailings in the past two weeks other than a few schools that I requested info from. I was kind of hoping to get some mailings now which would perhaps clue me into her PSAT score. She still gets emails constantly. </p>
<p>It is scary how our kids names are being sold. </p>
<p>It turns out that because of these new Common Core Standards our school is now giving grades in gym. It used to be " satisfactory," S+ etc. Thankfully the gym grade is not counted in the GPA.</p>