PSATs Back

[Yan Wang]

So we got our PSATs back at our school... the percentages look aright. I was wondering how other people did overall?

Also, was it me or was the math curve steep?

[Joe Matt]

I havn't gotten mine back. I'm guessing I got around a 4....

[srjjs]

Impressive score distribution. Either FIRST really does make people smarter or the people with lower scores are not as willing to respond.

[Ryan Dognaux]

I did fine on the 2 sections that count - English and Math.
Writing Skills is just a push over and doesn't even really mean anything.

[IMDWalrus]

I got a 224. I'm proud of myself.

[Ryan Dognaux]

So.. therefore there should be a lot of National Merit Scholars here by the look of the poll..

[IMDWalrus]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

So.. therefore there should be a lot of National Merit Scholars here by the look of the poll..

Speaking of that...does anyone know what the threshold is for being a NMS?

[Melissa Nute]

Originally Posted by IMDWalrus

Speaking of that...does anyone know what the threshold is for being a NMS?

It varies by state.

For florida this years cut off was a 214. I'm currently a Semi-Finalist this year and I shall know about my Finalist status come Feb.

You will not know the cut off for NMS until about August of your senior year though

[Blacknight]

according to the psat, i can't proofread
but i scored well in math tho, which helped me alot

[Yan Wang]

Originally Posted by Ryan Dognaux

I did fine on the 2 sections that count - English and Math.
Writing Skills is just a push over and doesn't even really mean anything.

Sry, but I disagree with your last sentence. I think the Writing section and Writing SAT II has much more importance than the Verbal SAT I... in fact, the collegeboard recognizes this and it is the reason why they are putting more practical things other than analogies into the SAT I Verbal next year. The skills tested in the writing seem much more practical and useful than knowing relationships between obscure vocabulary words and ambiguously-phrased critical reading questions.

Math counts though

[DanL]

Originally Posted by monsieurcoffee

Also, was it me or was the math curve steep?

Not really on the topic of the PSATs, but the curve on the Math IIC in October was so steep it was ridiculous. My 760 only earned me an 80th percentile. Similarly, on physics, my 730 was only a 75th percentile. Overall, it seems SATII's have much steeper curves than SATI's.

[IsabelRinging]

Originally Posted by Meli W.

It varies by state.

For florida this years cut off was a 214. I'm currently a Semi-Finalist this year and I shall know about my Finalist status come Feb.

You will not know the cut off for NMS until about August of your senior year though

Seriously? The scores must have been really high for a cutoff like that.

I'm one of eight (predicted) semifinalists in our class. Wee.

[Yan Wang]

Originally Posted by SuperDanman

Not really on the topic of the PSATs, but the curve on the Math IIC in October was so steep it was ridiculous. My 760 only earned me an 80th percentile. Similarly, on physics, my 730 was only a 75th percentile. Overall, it seems SATII's have much steeper curves than SATI's.

Well, when I speak of curves, I mean (as is usual) the point curve. I got 2 problems wrong on the PSAT Math and had a 73/80. Yes, that's 3.5 pts off per problem for the first 2 at least.

Percentile wise, the SAT IIs are steep because they are the most competitive tests since the more academically motivated people take them. The steepest tests within the SAT IIs are the language tests since the native speakers do really, really well... as in, nothing wrong :/

[abeD]

our school stresses this psat too much




probably why we had 32 national merit semi-finalists in my 2004 class (tihs is pretty crazy considering we only have about 190 students in my class)

[Ryan Dognaux]

Originally Posted by monsieurcoffee

Sry, but I disagree with your last sentence. I think the Writing section and Writing SAT II has much more importance than the Verbal SAT I... in fact, the collegeboard recognizes this and it is the reason why they are putting more practical things other than analogies into the SAT I Verbal next year. The skills tested in the writing seem much more practical and useful than knowing relationships between obscure vocabulary words and ambiguously-phrased critical reading questions.

Math counts though

Alright, maybe I came off sounding too harsh about the last section... but really, at the moment there is no Writing Skills section on the SATI, and students really aren't required to take the SATII... so, in my opinion, the Verbal and Math sections are much more important than that last section.
Rumor has it though that the SATI may soon include a writing section on it, and that it may be scored out of 2400.

Maybe I'm just saying this because I kinda blew off that last section though...