Wed PSAT vs Oct 1 SAT?

Schokolade
Fri, 21 Oct 2011 20:33:27 +0000

Fignewton–I found the College Board’s information to be confusing, but I think you are right. The following quotes are from the College Board’s website.



Percentiles are based on the most recent scores earned by current-year college-bound seniors who took the test at any time during high school.





[quote]
Percentiles are based on the most recent scores earned by students in the previous year’s graduating class who took the SAT during high school. /quote

The first statement (from the professional part of the website) implies to me that the class of 2012’s results are the basis for percentiles, because 2011 graduates couldn’t be considered “current-year college-bound seniors” in January 2012, for example. On the other hand, I think it would be too difficult to compute percentiles based the results of current-year seniors (class of 2012) within 2 1/2 weeks, and that would negate the reason to include the phrase “at any time during high school.” Therefore, I think you are right, the class of 2011’s results are used from October 2011 to June 2012, and the College Board should clarify its wording.

While my statement was inaccurate, I think the point I was trying to communicate is still true. Let’s see if this works: A first-semester junior who scores in the 96th percentile on the October 2011 SAT should not feel that he could not have scored in 99th percentile of the October 2011 PSAT because his percentile on the SAT is based on the results of students who took the test as juniors and seniors (who therefore had longer to learn the tested material) but his percentile on the PSAT is based on the results of students who, like him, are first-semester juniors.

Of course, my statement is based on my belief that students will tend to do better on the SAT the further along they are in their high school studies.

I’ve read your second paragraph as well, and grant that it is possible everything you wrote is true. However, even if the “PSAT times 10” approach gives an accurate estimate of someone’s ultimate SAT score, that doesn’t mean that a student’s October SAT score can predict his October PSAT score. A student’s SAT score tends to increase over time with experience taking the test and additional learning. In fact, the College Board reports:

On average, juniors repeating the SAT as seniors improved their combined critical reading, mathematics, and writing scores by approximately 40 points.



I am simultaneously seeking truth and hoping that my son did comparatively better on the PSAT than on the October SAT!