5 Things to Know About the PSAT

Below is ONE day's worth of college-marketing mail. One.

In addition, we've received more than 125 emails, since January 15. 

That's an average of 8 emails a day...to my personal email account, you know the one that goes directly to my phone and buzzes every time.

Why, you might ask, are you getting inundated with college propaganda out of the clear blue?!

The PSAT.

Yep.  My 11th grader took it back in October, like all good college-bound juniors should. 

If you haven't gone through this yet, here's what you need to know.

1. Before the exam your student will be given a long questionnaire to fill out.  This happened during class time, it was English for mine.  Questions asked will be all the standard stuff: contact information, school id, etc.  They will also be asked to bubble in their intended major, not general, but specific. 



2. The College Board, the organization that gives the PSAT, collects all this information and then makes some of it available to colleges and universities based on parameters like score range, intended major, or geographic location.



3. If your student fills in the yes bubble next to Student Search Services, you will be getting the emails and snail mail I've just talked about.  I'm not saying don't do it.  I'm saying consider giving them an alternate email specifically for all this information.  Then, you can look through it at your leisure.  The English teacher my son has instructed them to write in their parent's email, not their own.  If it had gone to my sons email, I never would have seen any of it, that's no good either. 



4. Seeing the vast array of university interest was an eye opening experience for my student as well.  Don't want to miss that fun.  We were just unprepared for the on slot of information.



5. Once the scores came in, around the middle of January, we were notified of a distribution night.  Scores were available with school counselors in the days following, for those who couldn't make it.  However, I think the hour and a half, on a Tuesday night, was time well spent.  A professional from one of the local SAT prep companies explained how to read and interpret the scores.  She also made suggestions for how to prepare for the SAT and ACT, but more importantly why to prepare. 

  

Here's a little pie chart similar the one presented to us.

Think about how much time goes into each section.  For instance, there are more than 1,000 hours in a high school year, plus studying, so the GPA section has taken at least 4,000 hours of work.  Whereas the SAT/ACT is 5 1/2 hours to test, plus study time, but look how huge the pie slice is. 

Her argument was taking time to study for the SAT/ACT gives the most bang for your buck.  Just 10 hours of study time and taking practice tests is shown to increase your score substantially. It's worth taking the time to prepare.  

 The packet of information I walked away with...

Your original test booklet is given back, so your student can see which questions they had trouble with.  Next to each question, on the score sheet, is a difficulty ranking too.

Not only does it show the individual score, in the three categories: Critical Reading, Mathematics and Writing, it also indicates how this score ranks, by percentage, against other test takers. 

If you'd like a guesstimate of how this student will perform on the SAT add a zero to the end of the number.  So 57 in Critical Reading becomes a 570.

Those of you with younger students will be interested in how the upcoming Common Core Standards will align with PSAT and SAT.  As a side note, the architect of the Common Core Standards, David Coleman, was named President of the College Board back in October 2012.  I'll talk more about that another day.