S18 is taking PSAT as I type this morning. D15 was NMF but S18 had never shown himself to be much of a test taker until recently. His practice PSATs over the last month have been progressively improving, to the point that I was genuinely amazed at his scores. Hears hoping those practice tests were accurate! Good luck to all your kiddos!
My 2018 son took the PSAT today. 2015 daughter was a NMS. I hated the waiting then, and I dread it now. It’s like putting on a pair of shoes again that are too tight. Ugh. Hurry, December 12.
Hello @HeliMom74 - I remember you from the 2015 thread! S15 also made NMS that year. Now it’s D18’s turn. She also took the PSAT today. Here we go again…
I’ve been sending positive testing vibes out to all the test-takers today. I hope everyone gets what they need to get out of it!
One interesting side effect of the PSAT is suddenly D’s friends are all chattering about testing, and as she puts it “bothering” her about it. She took the ACT, feels like it’s her test, and has no plans to take the SAT. Her friends, are all shocked that she would choose only one, because “what if a college doesn’t take that one but does take the other?” I’ve told her there are no such places, and she believes me, but she sometimes finds herself on the other end of some very oddly forceful conversations with bad information. In the end she just shrugs her shoulders and says, well I guess I won’t go to that school then. But she is also expressing concern about her friends lacking good information, and (yay!) feeling lucky to have such an obsessive mom like me. 
I told her the most important info for her to make sure her friends know is that they need to have their parent run the NPC for any school they are considering to be sure it is affordable. If she can get that little piece through, she may save some of them some heartache down the road…
I asked DS yesterday if his friends were apprehensive about the PSAT and he said no but one of his high stats friends didn’t know that National Merit was even a thing until it was too late to register for the test! His school has always been on top of NM in the past averaging about 25 NMF for classes of about 600 kids in a public non-magnet school.
I think the class of 2018 will be the lowest ever. They refused to let the sophomores take the test last year, (I pulled my kid out of school and had him test with the homeschoolers for which they gave him an unexcused absence!) They haven’t really informed the 11th graders about National Merit but paid for the 10th graders to take it this year so many of the 11th graders blew it off as a test for sophomores!
Haven’t spoken with S’18 yet today, but got a text saying he thinks he did well. We’ll see. But he did prepare and was ready. That’s the best we can hope for or expect.
Funny, more of S’18s friends seemed aware of NMSF aspect of the PSAT than S’13s friends were a few years back. He also thinks test scores and cutoff for NMSF have been rising in the state. Makes achieving NMSF status harder.
Good luck to all. On to the big tests now.
DS reported he thought PSAT went well and has found some humor and stress relief in PSAT Memes. He showed me some and they are quite funny but really only make sense to those who took the test so he did have to explain them to me.
Just before the PSAT started today, D18 said that the proctor told her she had to put her wristwatch away & couldn’t use it during the test. She keeps the watch (analog with no sounds or alarm) on the desk to keep track of her timing & it would have really messed her up if she couldn’t use it. There was a clock on a wall that was too far for her to see as she has problems seeing things at a distance. She had the presence of mind to tell the proctor that the rules stated she could have a watch and asked to have an administrator come to the room. The administrator came and said the watch was OK to use, at which point the proctor huffed off back to the front of the classroom. I’m glad that D stood-up for herself!
She feels the test went well. She wasn’t sure on a couple of the reading questions, but feels confident about her overall effort. Just as some folks stated previously, she was well prepared for this test and gave it her best effort - can’t ask for more than that. She took the SAT on Oct 1st, so we’ll wait to see the results on Oct 27th? to determine if it’s time to move on to something else. In the meantime, she’s signed-up to take the Math 2 subject test on Nov 1st.
I hope everyone’s kiddo that tested today did well and didn’t have any crazy proctors trying to mess with them. Best of luck to everyone!
Good for your daughter LMHS73. That took courage.
After conferring with his friends DS thinks he missed 2 math questions but got all the reading and writing questions correct. This is completely opposite every other past practice or real PSAT/SAT he has ever taken. He always scores much better on math than reading. I just hope it’s true, I believe he missed the two math questions but I’m afraid that he did not do as well as he thinks in the reading section. And the wait begins…
S18 felt PSAT went well. Who knows! Hard to wait given how many more schools NMF would open for him.
Hi there, everyone, I have a D18 and a D17. I’ve been participating primarily in the parents’ 2017 thread, but since D18 just took the PSAT, I’m going to jump on board here, as well, and try to keep up.
It all feels a little dejavuey, because I just did this last year, but hopefully I can help because D17’s stuff is still pretty fresh in my head.
Our school had PSAT on Saturday.
why are 18 year olds taking the PSAT ? Most kids at my sons school that took it yesterday are 16 year old juniors
@JerseyParents On these boards, people refer to D18 or S17 as Daughter or Son and the year they are graduating, not their age. It took me a few boards to figure that one out! My son, who is 16 and took the test yesterday, will graduate in 2018. Hope this helps!
OK I’m a NEWBIE 
So my son had just been promoted from a S16 to an S18 Good for him
Yep my S18 is 15 years old. D16 is 18 years old.
@MotherOfDragons is this the kid who wants ME or amusement parks? I saw that and thought of my friend who is an architectural engineer, specializing in water park design.
Been a while since I’ve checked in here and I’ve only skimmed the last few pages. DD, along with seemingly every other junior took the PSAT on Wednesday. We are not hanging our hopes on NMF given the extremely high scores needed in our state and this way there is no pressure on her. She can get anxious about grades and testing so we are playing it low key. Last year she scored in the 90th percentile and has done well on practice tests so I’m sure she’ll be fine.
We told her that it doesn’t really matter what she gets on the PSAT and noted that DS14 was commended with a 214 his year and now his certificate is sitting on his bedroom floor with a bunch of other things he cleaned out of his desk over the summer, ready to stick in storage.
We did not cancel extracurriculars on Tuesday, given that conference championships were Tuesday night and they won! The team went out to celebrate after and she didn’t get home until midnight. So she gets what she gets. For us, what really matters is the SAT and/or ACT. In a few years she won’t even remember the PSAT but she will remember winning that championship banner and celebrating with her friends afterwards.
It’s homecoming week for DD and she has been busy with spirit week activities PLUS it’s production week for the newspaper. She is also the one organizing her group’s activities the night of the dance and since she is in school all day then has newspaper and cheer practice right after and doesn’t get home until after 9 pm I’m helping her with some of the legwork. I was scoping out the photo venue yesterday LOL. And today I am decorating our basement for the after-party and sleepover. If homecoming is this involved and I can’t even imagine prom!
@Booajo yes that’s my girl :D. Water park design-that’s got to be one of the most awesome jobs I’ve ever heard of !