Reply to 2020 National Merit semifinalists in DC

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Some are data. Not all kids are focused on or give a damn another the PSAT. Mine charter school student wasn’t.

Took it in 10th with a very meh score was and didn’t study before PSAT in fall of 11th. He decided only the SAT counted and he began prepping for it over winter break of 11th.

Scored a 1560 that spring with help of an SAT book (no tutor, no class). Clearly had he decided to study for NMSQT he could probably have been close to the cutoff. I don’t think he is unique. [/quote]

And it's a...good thing that the kid and the charter didn't give a damn?  Becoming a NMSQT semifinalist is a certain boon when applying to competitive colleges. The modest award money doesn't hurt either.  The veteran college counselors at TJ in VA understand this, helping explain why more than a quarter of that program's juniors bother to clear the bar.  PSAT and SAT prep just aren't different enough to blow off the former and focus on the latter.  I'm a college counselor, and I could have told your student that.

You don't know how close he would have been to the cutoff - he didn't get around to taking the PSAT.  This is akin to saying, you know, he could have gone to Harvard IF I'd he's seen point of applying.

What else shall we excuse in DC public - middling SAT scores for various demographics, few Ivy League, US Military Academy and top 10 liberal arts colleges acceptances, no Westinghouse prize winners year in and year out? If every tried and tested academic standard for 17-18 year olds is made meaningless in the District, our enthusiasm for excuses for lackluster performance doesn't benefit our best and brightest high school students.[/quote]

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