1. Your Child’s PSAT Results
Helping your child to take control
of their PSAT and SAT scores
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2. Objective and Overview
OBJECTIVE: To help you understand how your child’s PSAT results relate to their college and career goals and how to support your child so they have the best opportunities for college admissions and scholarships later.
©2019 SBCUSD Family Engagement

3. Putting PSAT scores in context
Matching your child’s effort to their personal, academic and career goals:
Classes and grades
Testing—Admissions (PSAT/SAT/ACT) and placement/credit (AP/IB)
Extracurriculars—Depth and achievement
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4. Framing your child’s PSAT 8/9 scores
Where is your child currently, based on their PSAT 8/9 score?
Where would they like to go?
How are they going to get there?
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5. Record the PSAT score Take your child’s PSAT 8/9 total score… 920 450
470
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6. Record the PSAT score …and then write it in the PSAT 8/9 column. 920
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7. Highlight colleges
Highlight or underline all of the colleges your child is interested in (60th percentile minimum).
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8. Find the highest-scoring college
Circle the highest-scoring college.
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9. Figure out the points to go
Subtract your child’s PSAT 8/9 score from the score of the highest-scoring college.
1540
-920
620
Points to go
920
©2019 SBCUSD Family Engagement

10. Figure out the points per year
Divide the points to go by 3 (the number of years before they take the PSAT/NMSQT).
1540
-920
620
Points to go ➗3
207
Points per year
(round up)
920
©2019 SBCUSD Family Engagement

11. Figure out the hours per week
Multiply your child’s points per year by .015 to give you the hours per week your child should study—above and beyond their class assignments.
1540
-920
620
Points to go ➗3
207
Points per year
x.015
3.1
Hours per week
920
©2019 SBCUSD Family Engagement

12. Start studying!
The number of hours per week is the number of hours your child will probably need to study above and beyond all of their class assignments—even if they have all A’s. (No one gets into Harvard, Stanford or Yale without putting in lots of extra work.)
©2019 SBCUSD Family Engagement

13. Getting personalized practice
To get personalized practice and measure their effort and progress, your child should use the Khan Academy website.
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14. What you can do to help? You can help your child best by:
Helping them to understand the goals they have and matching their effort to their goals.
“Pros not only work harder, they work way, way, way harder.”
--Till Gross, personal coach
and motivational speaker
©2019 SBCUSD Family Engagement

15. What you can do to help? You can help your child best by:
Showing them examples of world-class student achievement.
©2019 SBCUSD Family Engagement

16. What you can do to help? You can help your child best by:
Helping them to understand different levels of learning and achievement.
“Amateurs practice until they get it right. Pros practice until they can’t get it wrong.”
--Anonymous
©2019 SBCUSD Family Engagement

17. What you can do to help? You can help your child best by:
Having them start boosting their scores now.
©2019 SBCUSD Family Engagement

18. The Benefits Scoring high on the PSAT/SAT has several benefits:
Increased chance of admission to the best universities in the world
More scholarship money
National recognition for your child’s academic achievements
Invitations to special programs
©2019 SBCUSD Family Engagement

19. Additional Information
Websites:
SBCUSD.com/parents (College and Career/Preparation/Testing/PSAT 8/9)
SBCUSD.com/parents (NMS100)
Collegeboard.org
Khanacademy.org
Contact Info:
(909)
©2019 SBCUSD Family Engagement

20. Questions? Comments?
©2019 SBCUSD Family Engagement