<p>Ack! I hope we don’t get PSAT scores before the holidays. I don’t have to wonder–I know they will be dismal. DS2 just doesn’t test well. I’m truly putting my hopes in the ACT which won’t penalize for wrong answers. I know this hurts him because he thinks he has the right answer when many times he does not. </p>
<p>Luckily for us DS2 doesn’t compare himself to DS1. They are very different, and also 3 years apart, so they don’t tend to compete on things. DS2 has a great entrepreneurial streak, so I know he will do well in life wherever he ends up! They each have their strengths and we focus on those for each and have never compared them in any way. </p>
<p>Our good news: PSAT scores arrived in the mail today! They were in an envelope with D’s report card and PLAN test results so I didn’t notice them right away. I wasn’t expecting them since a friend who has a junior in the same school told me that last schoolyear they got them in January. And we’re quite pleased with her score–she has a 202 without much preparation so maybe we can hope for NMSF as the cutoff in our state (NY) ranges from 215-219</p>
<p>Our bad news: D has an 80 in Math. I know that’s not too terrible but it’s the lowest grade she’s ever had in a major subject. At the parent-teacher conference the teacher said that D never asks any questions in class and has never gone to her for extra help, and she’s available at hours when D can see her. D says that she’s been kind of lost in Math this year, but what annoys me is that she seems resigned to just flounder along without asking for any help! So I’m going to wake up early on Monday to get her to the teacher’s extra help before school starts.</p>
<p>I haven’t checked in for a while but am reading about all the PSAT scores coming back. It’s nice to have the sophomore year scores so you know what to work on. Congratulations to those who received good news.</p>
<p>My S 2015 did not take the PSAT because he simply wasn’t prepared. I posted a few months ago that he has a lot of special needs. I was thrilled today to receive a letter from College Board saying that he’d been approved for accommodations:</p>
<p>Time and a half for reading, writing, and math calculations
Breaks as needed
Medication/food/blood sugar checks are all allowed (T1 diabetic)</p>
<p>I was very happy with all the accommodations! I’m particularly happy about the breaks as needed. My son’s vision disability will leave his eyes exhausted and he needs pretty frequent breaks. Also, when he’s nervous, his blood sugar goes high and makes him more fuzzy headed. We have yet to get through a single complete practice PSAT. He’s done a couple of sub-sections, but then gets tired. He’s got the ability and knowledge, but not the endurance at this point.</p>
<p>We shall see what the next 9 months holds. Some days, I’m optimistic that we’re moving in the right direction. Other days, I wonder if he’ll even be up for any tests, never mind college…</p>
<p>He has finally indicated he might be narrowing his interests to game design/illustration. I’ve identified four colleges that have programs that would fit the bill…but I’m probably getting way ahead of myself!</p>
<p>PS. Pepper, I know how hard it can be when a younger sibling compares themselves to an older sibling. My middle son lived in the shadow of my oldest. I’m actually glad he’s 3000 miles away from home in college. My middle son has blossomed more socially than he ever did when oldest was here. His special needs have masked his high abilities and he’s always felt stupid. And both he and my oldest are in a program that serves the highest end of gifted children so I know he’s not stupid, but it’s taken many years to work through this. He struggles academically for many reasons and has decided he’s a “B” kid. (We homeschool but he takes classes at a co-op) It was a very long process to figure out all his special needs and we’re still peeling back the layers of the onion, so to speak.</p>
<p>Hang in there and give your D a big hug. She sounds just wonderful.</p>
<p>Thanks sbjdorlo! She is doing fine-she is getting better about basing how she feels about herself on who she is and not how she compares to someone else-if she keeps learning that she will be far better in life than of she got a 240 on that test!</p>
<p>Please give your son a big hug too! He sounds like a fine young man-as hard as it is now he is going to be stronger because it didn’t come easy-eventually they all hit that point-some sooner rather than later but the key is how do they work through it to get where they need to be?</p>
<p>crepes is tutoring an option. Our school offers peer tutoring for free after school-my son did quite a bit as a volunteer. It may be just a bad fit with the teacher as well-maybe the way they test or their teaching style. My daughter is having the same issue in Biology-now that is a subject where much of it is memorization and on the tests she gets perfect scores on the essays but the MC trip her up-she struggles with MC anyway but even worse in this class.</p>
<p>I would be more concerned if she was having problems in Math though since that is something that so much of what they will be studying in the future. Bio-well that will be a one and done thing for her.</p>
<p>Congrats to all the kids with great PSAT and PLAN scores. </p>
<p>I picked up sons scores and attended the parent info meeting last night. Even though I have a college son I still learned something new. There are PSAT and PLAN marker scores for HS sophomores to predict a minimum GPA of 2.7 in college freshman year, which I have never known before. I am sad to report that my son did not reach those markers although I am not surprised because he did not do any test prep and now he understands he needs to!</p>
<p>PSAT update. D2 had a sub teacher in homeroom. She handed out the PSAT scores to everyone except D2’s was missing. She was sent to the AP of testing to get her score. Apparently, the scores shouldn’t have been handed out till next Wed and she wouldn’t give d2 her score. Grrrrrrrrrrrr</p>
<p>sunny I didn’t know that about the grade prediction but if I did it wouldn’t matter-there is no way I would take a test given in the middle of the week (and an awful one at that) with no prep and think that was any predictor of how she would do in college-</p>
<p>I am very happy for the kids her who did well and sorry for the kids who didn’t do as well but in the grand scheme of things I am not going to stress too much-if she had rocked the test I could worry that next year when she takes it “for real” she could have a bad day-be sick or just go down-which as well all know happens. I am in the opposite situation where she has nowhere to go but up. I just was talking to my son who got home yesterday (yay!) and he told me he had looked at the test prep book and done the practice test before the 10th grade and that helped him to at least know the format-she never opened the booklet. He feels if she wants it enough she can get where she needs to be and he will help her-so this can go either way.</p>
<p>OK the good news for my son I shared on the other thread is he finally got a coop-and it is an amazing one indeed! It’s been a very tough semester for him but he got through a lot and landed on his feet! </p>
<p>Congratulations to Pepperson on his coop! Fantastic! How long is it and what does it entail? I applaud you and him for remembering to thank the coop advisor. She sounds wonderful.</p>
<p>Sunny, forget that grade predictor. Given that this test was nothing more than practice with no prep and that it’s aimed at kids a year older with more relevant coursework under their belts, I don’t think there’s much you can predict from underwhelming results. There’s so often a marked leap from sophomore to junior year. </p>
<p>I’m kind of glad D hasn’t received her PSAT results. Finals start on Tuesday and she’s very focused on studying. A bad result might be a distractor and add needless worry. </p>
<p>Sbjdorlo, congrats on the accommodations. I hear it’s quite a process to get these in place and that it takes a lot of time to get them in place. I have friends who were dismayed to find that they couldn’t get everything done in time.</p>
<p>I’m excited for the end of next week when my big girls will be home for break and D '15’s finals will be over. We’re in for some stormy times until then!</p>
<p>Well, I spoke too soon. We received the PSAT results today in the mail. D got a 220-yikes. Now I can obsess and worry that her score will decline next year.</p>
<p>@3girls3 cats, That’s great! What is the cutoff in your state for NMS? I bet she has a great chance next year.
Just saw movie Lincoln! Speechless.</p>
<p>D is right at the cutoff for our state for the past year but as I understand it those cutoffs were lower than years before so if she wants to get NM, she has to improve her scores a bit. If the curve this year is any indication that’s not going to be the easiest thing to do either. She took a sample exam before this test in order to get a sense of the format of the test and types of questions on it so while I think more practice will help, it probably won’t give her the huge rise in scores that others will see next year. She already had a sense of what to expect and a sense of how to perform.</p>
<p>Lincoln was amazing. I was very impressed by Daniel Day Lewis. I’d actually like to see it again after reading Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book.</p>
<p>D is crabappley here too. Great word. She has too much to learn and too short a time in which to learn it.</p>
<p>D. has been in good mood expecting the break.
We saw Lincoln. Loved it!! Now she is counting the days for les mis.</p>
<p>Let’s hope some of our 2015s will be in NMS next year. </p>
<p>Many of D’s friends in CTY (HS seniors) that she befriended with in the past three summers are getting college admission letters. very encouragine news. I’m really happy for those kids.</p>
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