PSAT

I agree with u, I see no reason why he should not take the test. What is the harm in it? I took the ACT with and without extended time when I was in hs. I would suggest doing that also.

Will he have extended time? If he does not read fast, extended time might be of help to him.

My only caution about leaping into the PSAT is how will he feel coming out of it? I’d certainly buy a prep book for the test - available at any book store - and show him the format of the test before he takes it. We all do better at what looks familiar to us - go through the format of the test with him so he’s not attacking it ‘cold’ on test day.

Good luck.

If he’s honestly doing the work in his classes, why not? He won’t get the highest marks but the whole point of the PSAT is supposed to be a warm-up so you know what you’re facing later. And definitely yes, he should work the sample tests in a standard practice book (I find the Barron;s usually have the most practice). If he can succeed, the school should be encouraging him and be proud of him.

On the other hand, if he is being faked through school, if his accommodations are made-up imaginary marks, the the school will (quite rightly) be embarrassed when he bombs on the test.
I mistrust any school that claims students are learning work but refuses to have them take an outside unbiased test.

He has not received services since the end of 9th grade. He has taken mainly regular ed classes since he hit the HS. He has the Princeton review software for his PC to prep for the test. He also has a test prep book and cartridge from I-Quest and a study buddy from the HS who is also taking the test. Last year he took the PLAN which is like a pre-ACT without accomodations although the results were less then stellar on the English part, He recieved a 12 on it, he did manage to score an overall 16. I know 16 is not a good score but he did take it at the begining of 10th and has several more courses under his belt. The school claims the reason for not wanting some students to take the test is because it messes with their chances for scholarships. Since my sons grades would disqualify him for most any way I see no harm.

Lisa

Littlemac,

Those school official are not telling you the truth. Doing poorly on the PSAT does not mess up any scholarship chances. The results are not reported to colleges unless your child is a semifinalist, finalist or recipient of a national merit scholarship. I think your school’s principal doesn’t want to mess up his statistics with inconvenient results from those who might not do so well on the test.

The main reason for the PSAT is to give the students practice for the real thing, which is still an important part of the college admissions process. Its secondary function is to award national merit scholarships to the 8,000 students nationwide who are at the very top of the heap as far as PSAT scores, GPA and extracurricular accomplishments. There are plenty of prep courses out there and many students do take them for the PSAT, but they certainly aren’t crucial. (Prep courses are a lot more important when preparing for the SAT and your child may be at a disadvantage if he doesn’t take one as many, many students do.) The important point to remember is that the PSAT has absolutely NO effect on college admissions unless you are one of the very few high scorers, in which case you may receive scholarships that are reserved for finalists or merit scholars. Your PSAT scores don’t affect your eligibility for other scholarships.

The one thing to keep in mind is if your son is no longer getting special ed services does he still qualify for the accomidations? I had some probs with this when I looked into taking the CLEP test. Just somthing to keep in mind.

My son needs accomodations for testing. When that did not come through for the PSAT he took it as a practice test and the test was not submitted and we did not get scores, but he did get practice. At the end of junior year, he took the test with a tape and did very well. I think even just the practice on the PSAT helped. If your son takes the PSAT, you will have information to help you decide if he needs accomodations for the SAT.

Why is the assumption that just because he is ‘LD’, he is not smart, in most people’s minds. If Einstein was alive today, he would be sitting in my 11th grade English classroom! Really, why shouldn’t he take the PSAT? Too many people think that these kids aren’t good or smart enought to take college boards or even go to college, why? The answer is that wonderful paperwork is stressed, not remediating the student and exiting sped as the priority. Sped should not be a place for the student to livw but after the student is doing well, with few accommodations, and fewer goals, they should leave sped. Parents seem to think that the colleges will accept the IEP from high school and this isn’t true. If you don’t have recent testing, the colleges have every right to ask for it and most kids won’t be justified for services. You should perhaps look into exiting your son from sped. Shay

With ya all the way, Shay. My LD kid just made National Merit semifinalist, which puts her in the top 16,000 of more than one million students who took the PSAT.