S19 will be interesting. He used his HS school email for the PSAT and used that for the college board account. He will share the password with me though. He is definitely going to want to control this process in a way that S17 had zero interest in. I am very interested to see the scores. The kid historically tests cold quite well and I expect his baseline to be much better than his siblings but we will see.
So much drama here over French. He may end up dropping it for 2nd semester which I think long term, he will really regret. He is finally working with his teacher and agreeing to accept some help. He has huge issues in this area. He is used to doing well, has a small cohort who all does well, and doesnāt want anyone to know which makes peer tutoring a non starter in his mind. Itās not the material itself that is the issue but rather the application of it correctly. Overinflating the writing with big words, versus stating things simply and grammatically correct, and issue that isnāt limited to French! And is a stylistic/maturity issue as much as anything. It is so frustrating as he is doing so so well managing a really difficult load and the rest of the grades are solid.
A decent PSAT baseline will certainly help his self esteem, heās beating himself up in a ridiculous way over french that isnāt helping things. And, I am sure being the 4th kid through this process and being excruciatingly aware of what this means to his transcript isnāt helping an iota. The sad reality is though that it does matter, a lot. While one bad grade wonāt kill him, it just makes it that much harder to bring up. The drama and doom and gloom is crazy but itās not all teenage hormones, much of it is just S and how he has always been. The next 2 years could be a rollercoaster on a totally new level. Which I expected but ugh!
@klinska welcome!!!
@carolinamom2boys thatās exciting news, itās so fun to see those switches flip!
@Gatormama good luck on the scholarship, that is exciting but stressful too I am sure!
@klinska Wecome on board! 
>:D<
@Gatormama Good luck to the scholarship! Congratulations on the acceptance <:-P :-bd
Welcome @klinska!
OMG @eandesmom, I felt like reading my D19ās APChem drama put in much better words than I could ever have been able to do.
Good luck for the scholarship @Gatormama!
Thank you @payn4ward for sharing the PSAT info.
Son is happy today, heard from the soccer coach at Harvey Mudd who would like to have him out for a camp next summer. He saw him play last summer, and thatās like a dream school for my son so heās feeling happy. I will let him live on Fantasy Island at the moment 
@RightCoaster that is a nice Fantasy Island!!!
@collegeandi misery loves company? Not really but empathy and understanding are always really really nice.
I was able to see D19s PSAT scores as the CC put them in her naviance. She did just about the same as D17 did in her sophomore year, but she will definitely need to bring up the English score to help out her SI next year. D17 did an ACT prep course in the spring and it really helped her score improve such that she made NMSF. Not sure yet how we are going to fit a prep course in for D19 to work around school and gymnastics.
I donāt think our GCās let us have access to sophomoreās naviance accounts for a little while longer. I donāt really have much need for son19ās data yet, 1 psat test isnāt going to tell you much. I have access to his older brothers Naviance anways if I want to do some research.
Yeah, we donāt get access to naviance in soph year either. Dec. 12 is the day, so not a big deal.
@RightCoaster After I log in to my Naviance parentās account, it asks to choose a child. I wonder if you can pick S19 from there. And then About me > Test scores. For me nothing there though.
Ugh - she got 1100 on the PSAT. Is it too early for some prep? Where to begin? And I really want her to take a mock ACT to see whether she does better on that one.
@Gatormama, D19 used Khan academy for her prep as suggested by many experienced parents on this thread sometime back. She could not spend much time for PSAT due to her course load. She said that the prep helped her boost her score by about 75-100 points. She is planning to prepare using Khan academy during summer for PSAT next year when it counts.
Taking a mock ACT is a really good idea. Timed tests help the student identify the area of preparation more precisely.
Itās definitely too early to do prep. There are no standardized tests until junior year. Have her do prep over the summer.
I was impressed by my daughterās improvement in the verbal portion (from 610 to 690). But I really expected her to do much better in math. Last year, she didnāt even bring a calculator and hadnāt taken Algebra 2. I expected her to do bad and she did. This year, sheās in Algebra 2 and did bring a calculator, yet got the exact same score (580).
With a 196 selection score, looks like NMSF is out of the question for her. Even getting Commended is going to require some work. But looks like sheās capable of 30 or more for every category in ACT.
Almost forgot the PSAT score came out.
Never too early for prep. D can sign up Khan academy and import her PSAT report there and get customized prep. Never done it myself, but we keep getting emails asking to do so.
The report has the questions where she got it wrong.
I plan to have DS19 take full length practice tests, both ACT and SAT during summer.
My guess was right. S19 did better than S17 did and got 99% across the board. :x I hope he does as well as this next year.
Yay @payn4ward! 99% across the board is excellent! I am sure he will do well next year too. Congratulations to your son!
Bleh, PSAT scores not uploaded for son19 on College Board site, frustrating.
Congrats @payn4ward 's son !
For others, I donāt think it can hurt to start prepping early. My son has an SAT vocab word of the day thing he likes, and I think he took a pre-psat at home test. Just to get used to the format. I think that definitely helps. My older son17 had problems with the science section on the ACT, he just couldnāt figure it out, and it was his lowest scored section. After prepping and learning the āsecret tricksā on that section he went on to having a huge increase in score which pulled up his entire composite score. Moral of story, look at the areas your kid could improve and work on those.
My son has been in SAT prep through school as an elective since the beginning of the year . He has Language prep this semester and will have math prep next semester . He hasnāt come home yet, so I have no idea what his score is yet.
I disagree with the ānever too earlyā attitude towards test preps. Itās December of the Sophomore year. The next test your student will take is 10 months away. The next one that will actually count for college admissions is as many as 14 months away (for those taking their first SAT/ACT in February of Junior year).
It should be remembered that a sophomore year PSAT is only a practice test. In addition, unless the student is in contention for NMSF, it will only be a practice test even in the junior year.
Let your student concentrate on getting the best grades they can get sophomore year. Let them take a short break in the summer. Then begin a real study program from SAT/ACT, so they are prepared in the fall of Junior year. Making sure your student is prepared in the spring of their sophomore year is just pointless. They donāt need added stress in their life of test prep that doesnāt serve an actual purpose.
I disagree @gusmahler . My older son took an SAT prep class the summer before his junior year, took his first SAT in the fall of the junior year, as well as the PSAT in the fall of junior year. To say that one strategy works for every child is inaccurate . Learning test taking strategies given with prep classes are helpful strategies for any tests that they may take including time management , how to read questions and prioritizing questions . I think each family knows their child and should decide what works for them.
Agree to disagree,I guess.
From what Iāve seen, most test prep classes teach the student to take one test (the ACT or SAT). Techniques specific to those tests may or may not be useful for general classes. IMO, my daughter is already too busy taking her current classes. Asking her to prep an additional 1-3 hours per week for a test sheās not taking for 10 months is of limited benefit.OTOH, spending 1-3 hours a week during the summer, when sheās doing nothing else (except maybe one summer school class) will be time much better spent.
S didnāt give me his log in for college board but the HS already has them in Naviance under test scores. 1220. Honestly they are significantly lower than Iād expected, espec on the RW at 600, looks like he did poorly on the W. Slightly better in math at 620. Shows as 94th percentile for the combined score, 90 in CWR and 95 in Math. He did do better than his brother as expected, just not as much better as āIādā expected. I canāt see him getting to commended with a 182 but the W score is pretty shocking and I think there is major opportunity for improvement. I do not think he will be happy with these at all.
We will not begin anything until spring and summer. Practice tests on both in the spring and then we will pick one as the prep class and do it over the summer. He will likely take both tests but Iām not sure yet, thinking the SAT in Aug and the ACT in September. I do think it is a bit too early, prep now may or may not stick by fall testing and .I think closer to the date is better. If the student is motivated to do Kahn on their own, it certainly canāt hurt but I donāt think itās quite the bang for the time (or buck if private prep) to do right now.
@Gatormama I would definitely have her take a practice ACT to see. My S17 was in that PSAT range and we found the ACT to be a better fit. That said, had he done SAT prep Iād have expected about the same improved result which in his case, was not tremendous. I would say @collegeandi 's 75-100 comment is pretty spot on for our results if you concord it to the ACT. But that is for that child, S19 is likely to see greater improvement I think but only time will tell.
I am just not sure how ādifferentā they are anymore now that both are more curriculum based.