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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I would guess that most people on this thread know about th college process and their children will pursue it. I mean, you're commenting on a PSAT thread so you have some awareness.

There are TONS of MCPS families - parents and kids - who have no idea about the college process and don't know what the PSAT is.

Providing it for free gives those families a way to practice a test and gauge their performance and catches some students with potential who would have otherwise gone unnoticed.

If you can catch 2-3 kids and help change their life, is that not worth a little annoyance to UMC DCUM people?[/quote]

This!

It's a tragedy in this society that huge swaths of the population don't receive any nudge to get further education.  Their parents aren't focused on it and don't understand the value (or that they likely qualify for tons of financial aid).  Teachers are busy with their regular jobs and don't individually identify such kids.  And so they slip through the cracks.

MCPS offers a free SAT junior year.  But if you're on this board, you know that wealthy kids spend thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours prepping before taking the SAT.  Whereas kids who haven't been nudged engage in no prep whatsoever.  How can they be expected to do well on a test they've never seen before (and graded against kids who spent months prepping?)

So the PSAT a) gives them at least one practice in real test settings so that the SAT isn't completely a novel situation, and b) helps schools perhaps ID kids who otherwise might fall through the cracks and can actually be nudged to think about college at about the time they would need to start prepping, and c) perhaps inspires kids who thought college was out of reach to think that they might be able to succeed.

I agree that not everyone should go to college.  Far too many kids from wealthy families assume that's the only path and ignore the possibility of making a lot of money and having an enriching life in the trades.  And too many kids from poorer families assume college is for other people and never give it much thought.  Anything we can do to even that out is a great idea in my book![/quote]

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