Names of National Merit Semifinalists in DC Released: Sidwell -16. St. Albans - 1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private school forum posters are beyond weird. What kind of accomplishment is NMS anyways? Majority of my DS's public HS senior class have SAT in the 1500's but neither the school held the PSAT nor the SAT route to NMS was promoted.

The school did arrange for SAT for 11th graders and that was that. 37 of the 250 current seniors are semifinalists now. But around 40 more students would have made it as semifinalists if they had registered. They were not interested/paying attention and neither were their parents. I wish the counselors would have made these students register for the alternate route and asked them to get their scores send to NMSC also.

I am also amused at the narrative on this thread that PSAT is tougher than SAT. Not true. They are exactly the same exam but SAT has more content. Seriously.

For a lot of student that are commended or semifinalists through taking PSAT, they are lucky that so many high performing students were unable to take the PSAT and the qualifying scores thus dropped.

NMSC should automatically swoop up all students who take SAT and PSAT and evaluate them to make it more equitable. No one should be required to register. Maybe some Sidwell parent can sue NMSC.

You are jealous and it shows.

Its time for you and your kid to be take your medication for anxiety and ADHD. Go on - shoo, shoo!

No need for me to be jealous. My kid qualified with a near perfect SAT score and knocked out the NMS essay yesterday. Yet, I am aware how MC and LMC families and students are usually not counseled to take advantage of their stellar accomplishments.

[Anonymous]

Ok PP above, you are officially nutty.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:224

I don't get the 224. What's that on the scale to 1600?

Around 1480 I think

Can someone explain please? If 1480 was Semifinalist, I don't undertand how my son isn't on the list. He had a 1530. In Maryland.

If you are referring to OP’s list, it is because it was “DC” NMSF, not “DC-metro area” NMSF. Presumably MD has its own list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:224

I don't get the 224. What's that on the scale to 1600?

Around 1480 I think

Can someone explain please? If 1480 was Semifinalist, I don't undertand how my son isn't on the list. He had a 1530. In Maryland.

If you are referring to OP’s list, it is because it was “DC” NMSF, not “DC-metro area” NMSF. Presumably MD has its own list.

You either had to have a 224+ on the PSAT, OR register the SAT alternative in April and submit scores that had the equivalent.

If your kid didn't register in April OR took the PSAT then their SAT score would not be counted.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the private school NMSF numbers combined might equal the TJ numbers of NMSF. Go public magnets, wish we lived in a school district that had such programs.

Not everyone lives in a place that has a public magnet. In DC, if you want that kind of experience, the independent schools are closer to it than the public or charter schools.

Closer, yes. But still off by a ton. So interesting though, I think these schools really conceive of themselves of being academically at the top.

What do you mean by “conceive of themselves”? Our kids have been at multiple of the so-called “big 3” and I have never heard anything from the school indicating that they assess or consider themselves as being at the “top” of anything. There is actually very little, if any, comparison to other schools, public or private, other than in connection with collaboration or seeking information on best practices or information gathering to be used for considering programmatic changes. Never, though have I heard any inkling of the schools placing themselves in any hierarchy or at the top with respect to any other institution. I am not sure what you mean by this or what it is based on.

Riiiight

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Private school forum posters are beyond weird. What kind of accomplishment is NMS anyways? Majority of my DS's public HS senior class have SAT in the 1500's but neither the school held the PSAT nor the SAT route to NMS was promoted.

The school did arrange for SAT for 11th graders and that was that. 37 of the 250 current seniors are semifinalists now. But around 40 more students would have made it as semifinalists if they had registered. They were not interested/paying attention and neither were their parents. I wish the counselors would have made these students register for the alternate route and asked them to get their scores send to NMSC also.

I am also amused at the narrative on this thread that PSAT is tougher than SAT. Not true. They are exactly the same exam but SAT has more content. Seriously.

For a lot of student that are commended or semifinalists through taking PSAT, they are lucky that so many high performing students were unable to take the PSAT and the qualifying scores thus dropped.

NMSC should automatically swoop up all students who take SAT and PSAT and evaluate them to make it more equitable. No one should be required to register. Maybe some Sidwell parent can sue NMSC.

No one said the test is harder, but qualifying using it was. The Compass Prep site set it out pretty clearly.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All the private school NMSF numbers combined might equal the TJ numbers of NMSF. Go public magnets, wish we lived in a school district that had such programs.

Not everyone lives in a place that has a public magnet. In DC, if you want that kind of experience, the independent schools are closer to it than the public or charter schools.

Closer, yes. But still off by a ton. So interesting though, I think these schools really conceive of themselves of being academically at the top.

What do you mean by “conceive of themselves”? Our kids have been at multiple of the so-called “big 3” and I have never heard anything from the school indicating that they assess or consider themselves as being at the “top” of anything. There is actually very little, if any, comparison to other schools, public or private, other than in connection with collaboration or seeking information on best practices or information gathering to be used for considering programmatic changes. Never, though have I heard any inkling of the schools placing themselves in any hierarchy or at the top with respect to any other institution. I am not sure what you mean by this or what it is based on.

Riiiight

PP here. What do you mean by “Riiight”? Have you ever actually heard any representative of a top school make these kinds of comparative statements, either in public, within the school community, in meetings, or even in one on one conversations? I have not once heard anything like it. Never. If you have, just describe the event or occasion and that might make more sense. But, really, I have never heard anything like this from anyone at our kids’ schools. Simply doesn’t happen, at least that I am aware of, having been a pretty involved parent for over 15 years now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private school forum posters are beyond weird. What kind of accomplishment is NMS anyways? Majority of my DS's public HS senior class have SAT in the 1500's but neither the school held the PSAT nor the SAT route to NMS was promoted.

The school did arrange for SAT for 11th graders and that was that. 37 of the 250 current seniors are semifinalists now. But around 40 more students would have made it as semifinalists if they had registered. They were not interested/paying attention and neither were their parents. I wish the counselors would have made these students register for the alternate route and asked them to get their scores send to NMSC also.

I am also amused at the narrative on this thread that PSAT is tougher than SAT. Not true. They are exactly the same exam but SAT has more content. Seriously.

For a lot of student that are commended or semifinalists through taking PSAT, they are lucky that so many high performing students were unable to take the PSAT and the qualifying scores thus dropped.

NMSC should automatically swoop up all students who take SAT and PSAT and evaluate them to make it more equitable. No one should be required to register. Maybe some Sidwell parent can sue NMSC.

No one said the test is harder, but qualifying using it was. The Compass Prep site set it out pretty clearly.

Getting a 1500 on the SAT is easier than getting a 1500 on the single-sitting PSAT. Look at the percentages. A high achieving student will normally increase their PSAT score by 40-50 points. Someone with a 1490 PSAT would most likely not qualify, but the same student with a 1530 SAT would.

Also, qualifying scores for MD/DC have never been higher.

[Anonymous]

Too many adults and high school students bellyaching over a test for elementary and middle school student academic content. A low academic and intellectual bar indeed for worthy college bound students.

[Anonymous]

Of course, any real or imagined academic superiority of SFS or St Albans over many area public high schools is fallacy and conspiracy theory. The only material difference is due to the pocket books of the clientele.

[Anonymous]

Son at Penn; daughter at Cornell...could never quite get the NMSF oh well...seemed to have worked out.

[Anonymous]

What does that have to do with NMSF?

So low tier Ivies take more non-NMSF.

[Anonymous]

We'll see who is better. STA plays Walter Johnson in soccer this afternoon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Private school forum posters are beyond weird. What kind of accomplishment is NMS anyways? Majority of my DS's public HS senior class have SAT in the 1500's but neither the school held the PSAT nor the SAT route to NMS was promoted.

The school did arrange for SAT for 11th graders and that was that. 37 of the 250 current seniors are semifinalists now. But around 40 more students would have made it as semifinalists if they had registered. They were not interested/paying attention and neither were their parents. I wish the counselors would have made these students register for the alternate route and asked them to get their scores send to NMSC also.

I am also amused at the narrative on this thread that PSAT is tougher than SAT. Not true. They are exactly the same exam but SAT has more content. Seriously.

For a lot of student that are commended or semifinalists through taking PSAT, they are lucky that so many high performing students were unable to take the PSAT and the qualifying scores thus dropped.

NMSC should automatically swoop up all students who take SAT and PSAT and evaluate them to make it more equitable. No one should be required to register. Maybe some Sidwell parent can sue NMSC.

No one said the test is harder, but qualifying using it was. The Compass Prep site set it out pretty clearly.

Getting a 1500 on the SAT is easier than getting a 1500 on the single-sitting PSAT. Look at the percentages. A high achieving student will normally increase their PSAT score by 40-50 points. Someone with a 1490 PSAT would most likely not qualify, but the same student with a 1530 SAT would.

Also, qualifying scores for MD/DC have never been higher.

Correct. Because the max score on PSAT is 1520, not 1600.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PSAT/NMSQT

[Anonymous]

WJ has many more NMSFs