Understanding Your PSAT 89 Scores What is the

Understanding Your PSAT 8/9 Scores

What is the PSAT 8/9 and how does The PSAT it help? TM 8/9 supports students on their path to college and career readiness. ® Like all of the assessments in the SAT Suite of Assessments, the PSAT 8/9 is relevant to your future success highly because it focuses on the skills and knowledge at the heart of education. It offers scores and reports that provide insightful information ® about individual student performance on the assessment, including a predicted PSAT/NMSQT score and their progress toward the college readiness benchmarks. The purpose of this lesson is to support you as you review the PSAT 8/9 scores and reports, on line or on paper, with your son/daughter. • To share college and career planning resources; to help explore post high school options, and the pathway to career readiness. • The score sheet will provide an insight for areas of strengths and areas to grow. • The PSAT 8/9 measures reading, writing and language, and math skills developed over many years, both in and out of school. Content covers other subjects • The PSAT 8/9 does not ask you to recall facts from literature, history, or science, or to complete math formulas, because it measures your reasoning and critical thinking skills. • You don’t have to discover secret tricks or cram the night before. 2

Instructions for Using This Lesson Plan • • • The lesson is divided into sections, • Section one: the online reporting portal • Section two: the paper score report • Section three: additional college planning resources Some information in each of these sections is repeated to allow the flexibility to review only the online portion or only the paper score report. Use this table to tailor the lesson as needed. Lesson includes: Use Slides Both online reporting portal and paper score report 1– 35 Online reporting portal only 1– 19, 26 -35 If you need help call 866 -4337728. For school name: Rodney E. Thompson Paper score report only 1– 6, 20 -35 3

SAT Suite of Assessment Stafford County Public Schools (SCPS) has selected the Preliminary SAT/s 8/9 (PSAT 8/9) offered by The College Board as a universal resource and strategy to achieve the vision, mission, and goals of SCPS “Inspire and empower all learners to learn, ” and to “Engage, challenge, and prepare every student for success. ” The PSAT 8/9 is the first test in the SAT Suite of Assessments designed for college and career readiness and access, and it is designed especially for eighth- and ninthgraders. The PSAT 8/9 will focus on the knowledge and skills that current research shows are most essential for college and career readiness and success. The test will reflect the work students are doing in classrooms across the country and around the globe.

Benefits of Taking the PSAT 8/9 TM • Get a baseline of your college and career readiness. • Inspires Productive Practice • Helps Students Build Skills Over Time • Opens Doors to College • Connects Students to Scholarship Opportunities • Increases Access to AP and College Credit • Provides Nationally-Normed Scores for Academic Applications (i. e. Governor’s Schools) • Prepare for the PSAT/NMSQT and SAT. • Get free, personalized, and focused practice through ® Khan Academy. • Recognize Strengths and areas for growth. It helps students lean into areas they’re good at and identify places where they need to improve. • Explore future careers. College. Board partnered with Roadtrip Nation to create Roadmap to Careers, a unique online tool that lets students explore majors and careers that align with their personal ® ® interests. • Start getting ready for college with college and career planning tools. • Help you select high school courses. Knowing where they excel and what skills they should work on can help your child choose the right classes. • See which AP courses for which you might be ready. ® 5

How Do I Access My PSAT 8/9 Scores and Reports? TM 1. Review your online score reports. 2. Review your paper score report. 6

How Do I Access My Online PSAT 8/9 Scores and Reports? TM Create a new College Board account or log in to an existing one at studentscores. collegeboard. org. 7

How Do I Access My Online PSAT 8/9 Scores and Reports? (cont. ) TM 1. Log in to your account. 2. Select PSAT 8/9 Scores. *Or* 3. Use “Add Scores” to locate scores. 8

What Will I Learn About My Scores? 9

How Do I See My Detailed Scores? For assistance, call the College Board at 866 -433 -7728 10

Calculating Your Score Find out how your PSAT 8/9 scores are calculated and what those scores mean. Calculating Your Score Because there’s no penalty for guessing, your raw score is the number of questions you answered correctly. Raw scores are converted to scores on a scale of 120 to 720 using a process called equating. Equating adjusts for slight differences in difficulty between various versions of the test (such as versions taken on different days). The College Board uses equating to make sure that there’s no advantage in taking the test on a particular day. A score of 400, for instance, on one day’s test means the same thing as a 400 on a test taken on a different day—even though the questions are different.

Making Sense of the Numbers Score ranges, mean (average) scores, benchmarks, and percentiles can be used to see if you’re on track for college readiness. For the next few years, norm groups for the score ranges, mean scores, and percentiles described below will be derived from research data, not the prior year’s test-taking populations. A norm group, also called a reference population, is the group whose data your results are compared to. Score Ranges Tests can’t measure exactly what you know, and many factors can affect your score. After all, no two days are the same, and if you were to take the PSAT 8/9 three times in a week or once a week for a month, your scores would vary. That’s why it’s helpful to think of each score as a range that extends from a few points below to a few points above the score earned. Score ranges show much your score might change with repeated testing, assuming that your skill level remains the same.

Mean (Average) Scores Your score report will show you the mean, or average, scores earned by typical U. S. test-takers per grade. Unless your score is much lower than average, you’re probably developing the kinds of reading, writing and language, and math skills you’ll need in college. College Readiness Benchmarks You’ll see a benchmark for each section of the PSAT 8/9. Benchmarks are the scores that represent college readiness. In other words, if you score at or above the benchmark, you’re on track to be ready for college when you graduate high school. If you score below the benchmark, you still have time to work on your skills. Use the detailed feedback in your online score report to see which skills need the most improvement. Percentile Ranks A percentile rank is a number between 1 and 99 that shows how you scored compared to other students. It represents the percentage of students whose scores fall at or below your score. For example, a 9 th-grade student in the 57 th percentile scored higher than or equal to 57 percent of 9 th-graders. You’ll see two percentiles: The Nationally Representative Sample percentile compares your score to the scores of typical U. S. students in a particular grade. The User Percentile—National compares your score to the scores of typical U. S. College Board test-takers in a particular grade.

How Will I Do on the PSAT-Related Assessment Next Year? The predicted PSATTM 8/9 or PSAT/NMSQT® score is an initial projection based on current data and concordance. 14

How Did My Score Measure Against the Benchmarks? Section scores report scores in performance zones that indicate whether you are on track to meet the college readiness benchmarks on the SAT®. For section scores Need to Strengthen Skills = below grade-level benchmark by more than one year Approaching Benchmark = below grade-level benchmark by one year or less Meets or Exceeds Benchmark = at or above grade-level benchmark The red, yellow, and green ranges in the test scores and subscores reflect areas of strengths and weaknesses compared to the typical performance of students. 15

What Do My Scores Tell Me? Section, test, and subscores all report scores in performance zones that indicate whether you are on track for meeting the college readiness benchmarks on the SAT®. 16

How Can I Improve My Academic Skills? Skills Insight. TM informs you about what you are already likely able to do, and how you can improve your skills. 17

What Can I Learn from the Questions? Check the level of difficulty of each question and the related subscores and cross-test scores. • Look at the types of questions I answered incorrectly and skipped: • Identify the level of difficulty. How many questions did I miss at each level? • Was I more likely to skip questions associated with any subscore or cross-test score? • What inferences can I make about areas for improvement based on the types of questions I missed and skipped? 18

What Is My ™ AP Potential ? AP Potential uses scores from the PSATTM 8/9 to provide predictions for two AP® Exams for ninth-grade students. College Board research shows that students who score a 3 or higher on an AP Exam typically experience greater academic success in college and are more likely to earn a college degree on time than non-AP students. 19

Understanding My Paper Score Report

What Are My Scores? Scores for the assessments in the SAT® Suite are vertically equated.

What Are My Scores? (cont. ) Test scores, cross-test scores, and subscores give students insightful information about their strengths and areas for improvement. 22

What Are My Score Percentiles? Percentiles and benchmarks are provided for eighth and ninth grades on the PSAT/NMSQT®. 23

What Are My Score Ranges? PSAT/NMSQT® scores should be interpreted as ranges rather than singular points. 24

What Are My Areas of Strength? What Skills Do I Need to Build? Your Scores: Next Steps 25

What Are My Next Steps? • Continue to take challenging courses in high school • Link scores with Khan Academy • Set up a practice plan and stick to it • Utilize other resources to research and prepare for college ®

Khan Academy The Khan Academy is a free, online resource that offers video tutorials on a wide variety of subjects, including SAT prep. The resources they offer are video tutorials, personalized study recommendations, practice questions, quizzes, and four full-length practice exams. These resources were designed to help students identify the areas they need to improve on and give them targeted practice based on those recommendations. The Khan Academy helps with: 1. Specific Study Recommendations 2. In-Depth Ways to Solve Problems – break the problem down step-by-step 3. Drilling Certain Skills in areas of interest or difficulty 4. Official Resources

Official SAT Practice with Khan Academy — It’s FREE! ® ® • Go to satpractice. org and create a free account. • Get personalized recommendations. Link your Khan Academy account to your College Board account to import past SAT Suite results, or take diagnostic quizzes to get personalized recommendations. • Create a study plan. Select a test date and set up a practice schedule.

How Can I Practice with Khan Academy ? ® Watch a video introducing Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy. • Thousands of practice questions and videos covering every SAT concept ® • Six official, full-length SAT practice tests with more to come • Personalized recommendations based on each student’s strengths and weaknesses • Tailored practice schedule mapping out each students’ path to test day • SAT tips and strategies, sharing information about each part of the test

What Steps Will I Follow to Link My College Board Account to Khan Academy ? ® Step 1 Log in or create a Khan Academy account. Step 2 When prompted, agree to link your Khan Academy and College Board accounts. You will then be directed to collegeboard. org. Step 3 Sign in or create a College Board Account. Step 4 When prompted, hit “Send” to authorize the account linking. Step 5 Start practicing on Official SAT Practice on Khan Academy! ® 30

How can I Link My College Board and Khan Academy Accounts? ® • After successfully logging in to your College Board account, you will be asked to authorize the account linking. • After clicking “Send, ” you will be redirected to SAT® Practice on the Khan Academy site. • You can remove the link at any time by clicking on “Revoke, ” which is found in your College Board account settings. 31

What Additional Resources Will Help Me Prepare for My Future? • Big. Future™ • College Action Plan • College Search • Scholarships • Financial Aid • Roadmap to Careers • Student Search Service® 32

Big. Future — Search Colleges, Scholarships, and Careers ™ • Search for colleges. • Watch videos from real students. • Hear from education professionals. • Learn about different colleges. • Get help paying for college. • Build a personalized plan for getting into college. 33

Road Map to Careers Roadtrip Nation and College Board are partnering to help students connect with careers. • Choose your core interests. • Watch videos of leaders who share your interests. • Learn about majors and careers that align to your interests. • See examples of leaders who followed a similar path. 34

Student Search Service ® Connects students with information about educational and financial aid opportunities. • Participate voluntarily. • Connect with more than 1, 200 colleges, universities, scholarship programs, and educational organizations. • Sign up when you take the test: 1. Choose to participate in Student Search Service when registering for a College Board test (fill in the circle on the answer sheet). 2. Provide information about yourself on your answer sheet. 3. Participating organizations can then search for groups of students who may be a good fit. 4. FYI: The College Board never shares information on disabilities, parental education, self-reported parental income, Social Security numbers, phone numbers, or actual test scores through Student Search Service. 35