Sometimes things that make sense aren't that easy to achieve. I'd written about how I thought it would be smart to have students take the ACT PLAN (the pre-ACT test) around the time of the PSAT in sophomore year -- to get a sense of which seemed a better test going forward for the individual student.
But, I learned, if your teen's high school offers everyone the PSAT, chances are they won't offer the PLAN. And the ACT people don't keep a list of schools in a given area offering the PLAN (so that your teen could possibly take the test elsewhere). A nice person at ACT told me our school could request a single PLAN test to be administered to our teen. That wasn't what I had in mind.
Her guidance counselor gave me the best advice: stop obsessing about it, just buy an ACT or PLAN practice book, and have our daughter take the PLAN under test conditions -- timer, etc. That should achieve what I want.
Showing posts with label Sophomore Year - Testing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sophomore Year - Testing. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
PSATs, PLANs Greet Sophomores
The three-year testing season begins any day. Our sophomore will be taking the PSAT in school in mid-October and we'll be looking into a fall date for the pre-ACT, or PLAN, too.
Before our sophomore takes the PSAT and PLAN, she needs to be familiar with the tests. Kaplan, the test prep company, is offering our students (and probably all high school students) free, online sample tests. It will probably be useful -- to the students and Kaplan, which gains information that can be used to encourage enrollment in not-free programs. Great marketing initiative, though how helpful such programs are seems debatable. That's for another discussion.
But heck, will certainly advise our sophomore to look at the free stuff.
Taking the PSAT begs the whole testing question that centers on which is the superior, most-preferred, easiest, hardest, best for some, not for others issue of SAT vs. ACT. They are both accepted equally by most colleges, with no bias for or against either. Still, when narrowing college choices, it is worth checking into preferences at specific schools. Meanwhile, to get an idea of peoples' thoughts on the matter, take a look at the comments following a post on the subject.
Which scores are submitted can be decided later. It does make sense to take both this fall to see which plays to your student's strengths.
And may the college testing begin!
Before our sophomore takes the PSAT and PLAN, she needs to be familiar with the tests. Kaplan, the test prep company, is offering our students (and probably all high school students) free, online sample tests. It will probably be useful -- to the students and Kaplan, which gains information that can be used to encourage enrollment in not-free programs. Great marketing initiative, though how helpful such programs are seems debatable. That's for another discussion.
But heck, will certainly advise our sophomore to look at the free stuff.
Taking the PSAT begs the whole testing question that centers on which is the superior, most-preferred, easiest, hardest, best for some, not for others issue of SAT vs. ACT. They are both accepted equally by most colleges, with no bias for or against either. Still, when narrowing college choices, it is worth checking into preferences at specific schools. Meanwhile, to get an idea of peoples' thoughts on the matter, take a look at the comments following a post on the subject.
Which scores are submitted can be decided later. It does make sense to take both this fall to see which plays to your student's strengths.
And may the college testing begin!
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