Parents of the HS Class of 2026

My kid found this to be true. Practice test 1,2 & 3 are supposed to be easier, and 4, 5 and 6 are harder. Mine did 1,2 and 6 before giving Aug test. He is planning to give one more time next month. Although I feel they don’t need to as they are not applying to any competitive schools, and for others their score is pretty decent. Also, S26 has been overwhelmed with schoolwork at this point, so I don’t see the need to add more stuff like SAT (unnecessary imo) to their plate. He can always take one more try next summer if he really wants to. But of course why listen to mom!

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My daughter also did lower than expected on the “real” SAT – by 50 points – compared to the practice test she did. She has a second try scheduled, but I don’t expect a much better score because she is refusing to do any prep. In the meantime, next week, she has the PSAT at school. She will also have a chance at the ACT in the spring, which is required at her high school.

D26 felt as if the Princeton Review books ‘prepped’ her better for the practices on BlueBook.

She took the PSAT last year and is going to take the PSAT again next week. She will be taking the ‘for reals’ in December and for the last time in June.

Her school choices are all test optional, one of them is fairly competitive. She feels she can get within the range of score ranges listed within the CDS for each school based on her work so far.

We’ll see but we’re also not going to keep beating a dead horse if she doesn’t totally nail it.

eta: All of her other stats are very strong: Rigor, AP Test Scores, GPA, Class Rank, EC’s, etc…

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Sorry to hear you are not done. S26 did about as expected based on practice tests, which we parents were happy to hear, but he was hoping for a little higher (which is funny because he does not care this much about his grades), so he may try one more time after working more on the math. For our family, I’ve learned from my D22’s experience to try to be done with testing by next summer. In our area, many students take the testing to “extreme sport” levels and take it over and over.

Way back in the day when I had to prep for the GMAT I had a strategy (mainly study and do a lot of practice) and it worked. It’s amazing how much any advice I try to give is just ignored.
“Nope I got this don’t worry about it”, I know every kid is saying that to their parent but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. I understand now why some people hire counselors to tell the kids the exact same thing the parents would. Sometimes they just tune you out.

We don’t have any official scores yet obviously but, similar. What C26 is aiming for would be about 25th percentile at a tippy top but 75th percentile or above at the schools they are aiming at. So even if they underperform their aim they should be totally fine. They had a rough freshman year due to undiagnosed adhd catching up finally, so they are wanting a nice test score to support the upward trend in grades that they’ve seen since that was diagnosed and addressed.

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I totally hear you! S26 emphatically does not want help/advice/us to look in his direction, BUT D22 did slowly come around when she saw the parents had some crucial advice, so here’s hoping that they are taking in some of what is being said.

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We pretty much had to do with D19. C26 seems more receptive to us.

That assumes you can even get your kid to meet with a counselor! I offered to pay for private SAT tutoring for my D26 to target her specific area of weakness, and she declined. Not interested.

(Sorry – think I did this in reply to the wrong comment – oops)

It’s amazing, I would have killed to have had a tutor or anything beyond one out of date library book when I took my SATs heck I didn’t even know you could take them more than once until after I went to college.
S26 has a call with a math tutor this Friday, he has 1.5 months until his next SAT which in teen years is the distant future. I am hoping talking with the tutor he will realize he needs to start putting in time now not a week before the test.

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Have you checked out Rice? it sound like it may be a good fit for your son

D26 is set to take the PSAT at her school next week of course she has not bothered to study for it!!!She also is going to be returning home very late from New Orleans the night before it so it what it is… interesting she just told me she wants to take the SAT in January because our State just entered into a new contract with the ACT instead of the SAT and she feels that they have been preparing for the SAT since 8th grade and now are stuck taking the ACT in the spring at school. It sound likes she plans on maybe studying for it during winter break so that is surprising news so I Will happily sign her up for it. I have been trying to have her gain some study skills this year, I have concerns about how she will do once away at college if she never learns to study during high school.

Good news that she wants to study for the SAT! However there isn’t one offered in January. Upcoming is November, December and then not until March. You can see the dates here: SAT Dates and Deadlines – SAT Suite | College Board

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Of course there is not one in January :woman_shrugging::woman_facepalming:t3: thanks for the heads up!!

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Also register asap, some places fill out immediately. S26 will take the SATs again in December and depending on how he does he’ll be done otherwise he has too many exams/events to take it again this school year so he’ll have to wait until August.

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Thanks for the reminder, I have heard that can be a problem especially now since our state just switched to ACT more students will be taking the SAT outside of school I think she will now just take it in July or August.

S26 took the PSAT this morning. I am certain there was no studying beyond what might have occurred at school.

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S26 got his PSAT scores today. 1490 (730 for RW, 760 for Math). It said his NMSC index score, 222, meets the requirements for the National Merit Scholarship Program. We are new to this. What does this mean exactly?

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Great scores well done he will definitely be commended. He certainly should end up being a semi-finalist but there are a couple states that end up with crazy high cutoffs. So there is a technically very very small chance that he will miss the cutoff if you are in one of the high stat states

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This site is a good resource. National Merit Semifinalist Cutoffs Class of 2026

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