zibazinski
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Post by zibazinski on Oct 20, 2016 16:02:59 GMT -5
Our advisor told us based on DS's gpa what SAT score he'd need for colleges of his choice. She was spot on. Because of his high GPA, his SAT score didn't need to be more than a 1225. Thankfully he scored higher than that. No use taking chances!!
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2016 16:07:54 GMT -5
I don't think anyone rally looks at PSAT. For one thing it is given by the schools, so there is less security to monitor potential cheating. You are right that they don't really look at PSAT. It's not reported. But the schools also give the SAT and ACT. I gave the PSAT Wednesday and will give the ACT on Saturday. The security is the same. We are a major test center for both tests because of our size. Some colleges also give this type of standardized test, but who gives it has no effect on whether it's counted or not. ETA: Not reported means the score isn't sent directly to colleges. As others have pointed out, many schools record all standardized tests on the transcripts.
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haapai
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Character
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Post by haapai on Oct 20, 2016 16:49:44 GMT -5
A lot of high schools include PSAT scores, even those administered to 8th and 9th graders, on their transcripts. I don't know if colleges look at them at all, but their presence on the transcript does say a bit about how much money the high school or school district puts toward testing. I suspect that it's a fairly potent signifier of wealth and the presence of a PSAT score on a high school transcript almost never hurts the student.
Some high schools use PSAT scores to determine who gets onto the honors/AP track and who does not. An unexpectedly high score can also result in a student who is not headed for those classes being given the option to take them. An 800 PSAT score on the math section in 9th grade got me out of the dumb-girl math track and onto a course that resulted in me skipping trig/precalc and taking two years of calculus instead.
I don't want to even think about what taking two calculus AP courses instead of one did to my weighted GPA. This was thirty years ago when graduating with three AP classes was considered outstanding.
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Oct 20, 2016 17:35:59 GMT -5
There's hope for those of you with those kids. My brother turns 30 in December. He's 11.5 years into a good job with a defined benefit pension and can retire at 45. He does wish he'd gotten a degree and probably will eventually. My stepmother used to swear he'd be living in her house forever.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2016 17:46:53 GMT -5
Once upon a time I taught at the best public high school in Alabama. I was in graduate school working on a PhD when they hired me. That tells you something about the caliber of teachers they hire.
Anyway, I noticed that kids started taking the PSAT in 10th grade. The reasoning behind it is that familiarity with the format improves the scores. So I made both of my kids take in 10th and then 11th. My daughter can't add (a family joke) so it didn't really help although she did end up with a 32 on the ACT. My son made 95th percentile as a sophomore . . . nice but no National Merit. You have to make the top half of the top one percent. By the way, that varies by state so you have to get higher scores in some states than others. Anyway, he didn't want to do it again, but I made him. And, yes, he was a National Merit.
I absolutely believe in taking it as a sophomore . . . even more than as a junior unless you (a) really are going to take the SAT, or (b) you have a score in the 90th percentile as a sophomore. You simply understand it better the second time around. As a junior, though, you only have one shot.
They put it on our high school transcripts, too, but that doesn't mean the colleges notice it. The kids take a later exam, either the ACT or the SAT. It would be a major fluke if they made higher as a sophomore than as a junior. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, but it would be extremely unusual.
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milee
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Post by milee on Oct 20, 2016 18:05:20 GMT -5
RSVP #2 here. I'll bring the beer. There is hope though. My DS is very smart but lacked in motivation and social skills. High school was easy for him, he got good grades with very little effort. When we dropped him off a college (mid-level state university 4 hours from home), we thought there was a very good chance that he would sit in his room and play video games and flunk out. He managed to make it through freshman year with decent grades. He also joined some activities, made a bunch of friends and got a girlfriend. He chose a major (eventually double majored), chose a career path and made nearly straight As from then on out. He is now 24 working a good job and engaged to his girlfriend from freshman year. The only thing that made a difference was the HE decided to do well in school.I'm seeing this in action right now. DS1 is scary smart but not always self-motivated. One of his biggest weaknesses was his tendency to blow off things he found uninteresting. I worked with him (that's the PC term for not only calmly described potential consequences but actually rode his ass hard and monitoring that he did the work, etc.) on these issues up through partway through middle school, but had to stop because not only was it impacting our relationship and hardening his (bad) attitude, but he started to actively sabotage himself because independence was important enough to him that he'd cut off his nose to spite his face. So I stopped. Giving him the rope to hang himself was hard... and for several years he took every inch of that rope and hung himself. It was hard to watch, especially knowing that getting As wouldn't have been hard for him and that those blah grades in 9th and 10th grade were going to really come back to bite him on the ass when it came time for college admissions. But me riding him was just delaying the inevitable and also preventing him from learning the lessons in self control and grit that he needed. This summer, he asked for the first time to go visit a college he was interested in. He fell deeply in love and realized he really needs to clean up his act to go there. So far, he's getting straight As in school and (on the practice tests anyways) raised his SAT score by 250-300 points. And all this is totally without my comment, involvement, monitoring or even checking on. I always knew the little booger could do that... but not until HE decided to. AAAARRRGGH!!!!
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wvugurl26
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Post by wvugurl26 on Oct 20, 2016 19:15:30 GMT -5
Totally my brother milee. If he's interested in it he'll know everything. If he's not forget it. He's smarter than me. I just played the system. He does all of my vehicle maintenance, is a licensed electrician, great at home repairs, can build all kinds of things, and can explain to me how all kinds of crap works. He was hand picked for his current role at work and someone else put in a request for him to run special projects.
What you described with the relationship damage lived through that. It's better now but those were some rough years for all of us. He would have had those traits anyway but he got a truly awful 5th grade teacher and it was downhill from there.
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tskeeter
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Post by tskeeter on Oct 20, 2016 23:41:16 GMT -5
I always thought class rank played a part too. I would think it would have to at some point... I mean I went to a HS that had a 12 pt scale. So to say you got a 4.0 at my HS wouldn't mean too much in the grand scheme compared to other HS students. I was in the top 10 in my class. There were seven of us.
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GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl
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Post by GRG a/k/a goldenrulegirl on Oct 21, 2016 8:58:36 GMT -5
I always thought class rank played a part too. I would think it would have to at some point... I mean I went to a HS that had a 12 pt scale. So to say you got a 4.0 at my HS wouldn't mean too much in the grand scheme compared to other HS students. Our high school doesn't rank the class, except for Valedictorian and Salutatorian. Most colleges now only ask you to list class rank IF you have one.
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bookkeeper
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Post by bookkeeper on Oct 21, 2016 12:27:11 GMT -5
Both our sons went to the University of Nebraska, so my experience has been limited to one school.
Scholarships at that school were determined by there things. GPA, ACT score and your class rank at the end of your junior year of high school. Not much else was considered.
The ACT cutoff score for a full tuition academic scholar was 32 for DS#2. He was notified in October of his senior year that he had earned the scholarship.
Mama celebrated that night!
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Post by The Walk of the Penguin Mich on Oct 21, 2016 12:58:12 GMT -5
TD just had coffee with the recruiter for the engineering program at UBC. He got his degree from there in 1981, and while he was smart in HS, his grades put him at around 88 or so when he graduated.
The recruiter told him that the average grades of those admitted into the program was in the mid 90s, occasionally they might admit someone at 90 (it sounded like a lot more emphasis was put on HS grades than in the US), if there was a compelling reason. The take home message he got was that today he would not have been accepted.
OUCH!
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teen persuasion
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Post by teen persuasion on Oct 21, 2016 15:52:38 GMT -5
Once upon a time I taught at the best public high school in Alabama. I was in graduate school working on a PhD when they hired me. That tells you something about the caliber of teachers they hire. Anyway, I noticed that kids started taking the PSAT in 10th grade. The reasoning behind it is that familiarity with the format improves the scores. So I made both of my kids take in 10th and then 11th. My daughter can't add (a family joke) so it didn't really help although she did end up with a 32 on the ACT. My son made 95th percentile as a sophomore . . . nice but no National Merit. You have to make the top half of the top one percent. By the way, that varies by state so you have to get higher scores in some states than others. Anyway, he didn't want to do it again, but I made him. And, yes, he was a National Merit. I absolutely believe in taking it as a sophomore . . . even more than as a junior unless you (a) really are going to take the SAT, or (b) you have a score in the 90th percentile as a sophomore. You simply understand it better the second time around. As a junior, though, you only have one shot. They put it on our high school transcripts, too, but that doesn't mean the colleges notice it. The kids take a later exam, either the ACT or the SAT. It would be a major fluke if they made higher as a sophomore than as a junior. I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, but it would be extremely unusual. The private HS I attended offered the PSAT both sophomore and junior years, and then I did the SAT twice. Each time I improved my score by roughly 100 points. I really wish that our kids' public district offered the PSAT to sophomores, too. The kids could use the exposure. If anyone's kids are eligible for free or reduced lunches, you are also eligible for vouchers to defray the cost of the SAT, twice. You have to ask the guidance office for the voucher BEFORE registering to take the SAT the first time. If you take the SAT and pay out of pocket, you cannot submit a voucher for a second SAT. No idea if it also applies to the ACT; that is not very common here. Eligibility for the vouchers can also mean that college application fees may be waived, at least for the common app schools. Some schools also grant app fee waivers to alums, who can use them on behalf of younger friends or sibs/relatives. We learned about that last one when DS4 applied to DS2's alma mater, and they asked if he wished to claim the waiver via his brother. None of us had ever heard of it before.
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