Practice PSAT

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I thought the PSAT was the practice SAT? Now they have a practice PSAT?

back in the 80s when I took it, the "P" stood for Pre. We called it "Pre Sat" (two syllables). It was the test before the SAT!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:where are you seeing the scores? I looked in MyMCPS under the "Document Library." Don't see them there.

College Board account

DP.

So the kids have a college board account?

My son doesn't tell me anything so I'm coming here to find out the scoop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I thought the PSAT was the practice SAT? Now they have a practice PSAT?

back in the 80s when I took it, the "P" stood for Pre. We called it "Pre Sat" (two syllables). It was the test before the SAT!

Yes, the score report from the College Board says the "P" stands for Preliminary.

[Anonymous]

Does it predict SAT performance? Or is it more to give a starting point? My child took the PSAT 8/9 with no prep. The report says that if he’d taken the SAT on same day he’d have gotten the same score. But he will be much older when he takes SAT and will prep so not sure what this score tells us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Does it predict SAT performance? Or is it more to give a starting point? My child took the PSAT 8/9 with no prep. The report says that if he’d taken the SAT on same day he’d have gotten the same score. But he will be much older when he takes SAT and will prep so not sure what this score tells us.

It's a starting point, with the expectation the scores will climb after additional year(s) of schooling/prepping.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:where are you seeing the scores? I looked in MyMCPS under the "Document Library." Don't see them there.

College Board account

DP.

So the kids have a college board account?

My son doesn't tell me anything so I'm coming here to find out the scoop.

My son got an email from College board, telling him his scores were ready and that he should create a college board account. (apparently they ask for the email on the test?) They ask for a whole bunch of personal information from the kids when they take the test, and again when they create the College Board account. Irritating.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:where are you seeing the scores? I looked in MyMCPS under the "Document Library." Don't see them there.

College Board account

DP.

So the kids have a college board account?

My son doesn't tell me anything so I'm coming here to find out the scoop.

My son got an email from College board, telling him his scores were ready and that he should create a college board account. (apparently they ask for the email on the test?) They ask for a whole bunch of personal information from the kids when they take the test, and again when they create the College Board account. Irritating.

The reason why they ask your child for their personal information on the test is so that it can synchronize with his College Board account which will have the same information.

[Anonymous]

One thing I don't understand:
They say the score you get from PSAT 8/9 is what you would have gotten from SAT. But how can that be? One score is out of 1440, the other is out of 1600. Maybe the kid is good enough to get 1500+ from SAT, but he can never get that score from PSAT8/9. What am I missing here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One thing I don't understand:
They say the score you get from PSAT 8/9 is what you would have gotten from SAT. But how can that be? One score is out of 1440, the other is out of 1600. Maybe the kid is good enough to get 1500+ from SAT, but he can never get that score from PSAT8/9. What am I missing here?

I think you missed what the College Board says. The college board says, if the same student were to do SAT test at the same time (i.e. instead of the PSAT 8/9), the student is expected to score the same (similar) points in SAT (regardless of the differences in the length of time and the number of questions, or the scale of the test scores).

[Anonymous]

Yes, I got that. But that still does not answer my confusion. Suppose your 8th or 9th grader is a genius, and could have gotten 1550 if she took SAT. But being an 8th grader, she could only take PSAT8/9, and got 1430. So how is 1430 the same as 1550?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, I got that. But that still does not answer my confusion. Suppose your 8th or 9th grader is a genius, and could have gotten 1550 if she took SAT. But being an 8th grader, she could only take PSAT8/9, and got 1430. So how is 1430 the same as 1550?

SAT is not measuring genius. They assume that every year the student learns more and are able to improve their SAT scores. Barring the exceptions of statistically insignificant groups of some genius students, College Board has predicted that 9th graders will not be able to score more than 1440 (PSAT 9) or 1520 (PSAT/NMSQT) on SAT.

I am sure College Board runs some statistical modeling algorithms etc to make these predictions. The premise is that 99% (or some very high percentage) of the times the most advanced student of 9th grade, will not be comparable to the most advanced student of 11th grade.

Now, if your 9th grade student is very high performing and can score a 1600 on SAT, then by all means let them take SAT and be done with it. There is no bar to any student taking SAT or PSAT/NMSQT or PSAT 8/9. It is just that for the PSAT/NMSQT, even if the 9th grade aces it they will not be qualified for NMSQT because that is only the junior year PSAT.