Every December, families receive their high school juniors’ PSAT (Preliminary SAT) scores. Suddenly, college admission is less of an abstract idea: scores are in-hand, deficits are obvious, and only six months remain in junior year to execute an effective plan. A flood of anxious questions follows:
“My scores are low. Does this mean I won’t get into college?”
No. PSAT scores are not sent to colleges nor are they necessary for admission. It’s the full-length SAT that colleges use when assessing your application.
“If I don’t get National Merit, does that hurt my chances of getting into college?”
No. We have students admitted to Harvard and Yale without any National Merit honors. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) recognizes students whose PSAT scores are 217 (out of a possible 240). Yet only 50,000 of the 1.4 million 11th graders who take the PSAT ever qualify—that’s only 3.5% of PSAT test takers.
Whether you’re part of this 3.5% or, more likely, part of the other 96.5%, there’s a more productive question you should ask:
“How can I use the PSAT to create a successful test prep plan?
First, use the PSAT to help you determine whether you should take the SAT or ACT.
Every year about 1.5 million students take the SAT and another 1.5 million take the ACT. Either the SAT or the ACT will be accepted at any college, so it’s really just a matter of which test features you best.
Here are a few questions that can guide your decision:
Are you strong in mathematics and enjoyed geometry and trigonometry? If yes, the ACT’s math section will suit you well.
Is your PSAT percentile low, as well as your enthusiasm for the test? Explore the ACT as an alternative.
Are you an avid reader and writer and enjoy language and literature? The SAT is comprised of two-thirds verbal material, including a timed, graded essay, so perhaps the SAT will showcase your talents best.
Use the PSAT to help you identify your weakest PSAT subsections and target exactly what you should focus on to prepare for a strong SAT performance.
Did the Sentence Completions on Critical Reading section challenge you? If so, specific emphasis on SAT vocabulary is called for.
Did the Identifying Sentence Errors on the Writing cause you some confusion? If so, a review of SAT Grammar is necessary.
Did the student-produced responses in the Math pose a problem? If so, a review of the most common SAT math questions is in order.
Use your PSAT to anticipate the SAT Subject Tests you might want to take in the spring of junior year.
If you’re applying to a number of selective schools, or any of the California state schools, you’ll be required to take SAT Subject Tests, one-hour academic achievement tests in a variety of subjects. There are a few assumptions you can make:
If your PSAT math is low, then you most certainly will need to create a plan for math preparation for both the SAT and the SAT Subject Tests in math. Most competitive schools want to see you submit a Subject Test in mathematics.
If your PSAT Critical Reading is high, then you might be a good candidate for the Literature Subject Test, a test of passage-based reading on poetry and prose passages. A strong verbal mind is required for success on this exam.
In all, the best use of the PSAT is as a diagnostic tool to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Use it to create the best study plan that addresses your needs as a college applicant. Sit. Diagnose. And plan your best approach to a successful test taking and college admission strategy.
The College Board has adopted a Score Choice™ policy for the SAT that, according to the College Board website, will give students the option to choose, by test date, which SAT scores that they will send to colleges and thereby “allow students to put their best foot forward on test day by giving them more flexibility and control over their scores.”
Articles in U.S. News and World Report and Newsweek covering the College Board’s new test-reporting option raise a number of questions about the motivation for and benefits of the policy. The Newsweek piece reports that the new policy may be less altruistic and more financially motivated than the College Continue reading →
The College Board has recently announced a new test to be rolled out in fall 2009. Called ReadiStep, the new test is designed, as the College Board press release states, “to identify the skills that 8th grade students have and those that they need to develop in order to be more prepared for rigorous high school courses and for college.” The pencil-and-paper format test is two hours long and divided into multiple-choice sections of math, writing skills, and critical reading skills. Individual schools and school districts will decide if they want to employ ReadiStep and when they would administer the exam; they would also cover the fee of $10 dollars per exam.
In introducing ReadiStep, the College Board seems to be assuming that schools and school districts, not to mention parents, are interested in having a standardized nation-wide skills assessment at the eighth grade level. The College Board has not made clear what the utility of such a national standardized exam might be to local schools and school districts. Given the number of state tests that have been introduced in recent years as part of various no-child-left-behind initiatives, authorities at the state, district, and local school levels will need to determine whether ReadiStep provides a better tool for assessing student preparedness.
Despite assurances from the College Board that this is “not at all a pre-pre-pre SAT,” critics of standardized tests and their influence on curriculum design and the college admissions process have been quick to question the need for the new test. Some have argued that the new test will only serve to push standardized test-taking anxieties downward into middle school; others that this is a clear effort on the College Board’s part to boost profits at a time when it sees its dominance in the college entrance exam sphere being eroded by competition from the ACT.
Perhaps the most sober way to understand ReadiStep is as a blunt but useful instrument for assessing 8th grade students’ mastery of those fundamental skills that lend themselves to standardized testing. We have yet to see a ReadiStep test, so it is not possible to offer specific advise as to how a district, school, or individual student might prepare for the new exam. Indeed, even if the test were available for review, the soundest advise that one might offer parents would be to understand that:
Preparedness for such exams should be a byproduct of every child’s education–not the goal but the result of an educational philosophy that emphasizes the acquisition of foundational skills.
K thru 12 Parents need to advocate at their children’s schools so as to make sure that every child receives a solid foundation in basic reading, writing, and math skills, which represents the best preparation not just for standardized exams but for the rigors of both high school and college course work.
K thru 12 parents should recognize that it is their right and responsibility to insist upon the coordinated and transparent assessment of these fundamental skill sets over the entire course of every child’s K thru 12 education because such assessment enables educators, parents, and students to identify and address specific weaknesses in the essential skills.
Courtney Federle earned his PhD at The University of California, Berkeley; for over twenty-five years, he taught at the high school, college, and graduate levels; for six years, he was an Assistant Director of College Admissions at the University of Chicago.
The people who open and close the gates to undergraduate programs at American colleges and universities, that is, the high school college counselors who help students with the application process and the college admissions officers who make the admissions decisions, recently held their annual professional conference. By far the most heavily attended session at the conference was a panel that discussed the professional organization’s recently published report on the place of standardized testing in college admissions. The National Association for College Admissions Counseling (NACAC) released its report on the “Use of Standardized Tests in Undergraduate Admission” in late-September. Though the NACAC report has received some press coverage, mostly focused on the perennial question of whether or not schools are going to drop the test as an admissions requirement, it would be helpful for parents to consider the less sensational and Continue reading →
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