Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums High School Anyone else taking the PSAT this year?

DS is back from taking it and since no one told he he was supposed to go to a different room hid didn't get take his extra time. He said he completed it anyway but I'm sure that extra time would have helped. GRRR... Oh well can't redo it now. But it's frustrating I emailed the counselor in charge and she said she had it handled. He wasn't on the list of the room he went to and instead of sending him to look for where he should go the proctor just added him. And he didn't insist.

Kids just don't like to stand out or be singled out. I arrange dinner for a group of kids several times in the season, and always accommodate the dietary restrictions. They are just supposed to ask, and their teacher and parents remind them. If they have separate individual meals, they are set aside so the rest of the wolves I mean students don't take them. But most of them won't ask. I try to recognize them in line, but there are over 100 kids altogether and it takes me 3-4 dinners to know who gets a special meal, and if they don't let me know the first week I may never know who they are.

The ones who DO ask are not restricted for medical reasons, or else they are seniors, who are developmentally taking charge of their lives in general. It takes until the 6th meal for most of the kids to be comfortable with asking, and then the season is over.

When it comes to accommodations, and on a test day when there are so many new and different rules, different rooms, etc, to keep track of, it's really hard for a student to know when and whom to ask. The room proctors should know to figure things out when they don't have a name on their list.

Sorry to veer slightly OT, but I find this fascinating. I have a dd who has anaphylactic allergies, and by the time she was 6-7 years old (and started to really understand what anaphylaxis and death meant) sdshe *absolutely* had no issue with speaking up and asking. I can totally understand that it's a huge task to keep up with as the adult supervising the group meal, but honestly, I'm very surprised that the children with medical issues wouldn't speak up - that's the polar opposite of what our experience has been with dd and the other children we know with medical issues that are issues enough to make them physically ill.

Re the PSAT bluemagic, I'm so sorry that happened to your ds! My ds has had similar things happen at school at different times with standardized testing but his high school at least seems to have their act together re being sure the kids with accommodations know when to go where etc.

And yes, ndw, kids don't like to stand out. My ds who has accommodations for his dysgraphia and dyspraxia did not like to stand out for many many years. He's finally growing into his own "skin" and much more at ease with using accommodations in class and for tests etc. What made the difference with him feeling comfortable speaking up (and this is a kid with an expressive language disorder).. is the point in time at which it really clicked with him that yes, the accommodation *did* make a difference in allowing him to show what he really knew and that *without* the accommodation he was very frustrated in not being able to accomplish what he knew he was capable of. Perhaps that's a bit similar to my dd not having a concern in the world about telling an adult she couldn't eat something once she'd had made the connection that the accommodation (food) was necessary (so that she didn't get sick).

Sorry for the ramble!

Hope your ds did well blue

polarbear

Yeah my son's high school testing coordinator is new and claims in a high school of over 3000 kids not a one kid had college board approved accommodations. Well that was bs because my son took his letter in and showed her and we know there are a few more. My son was the only one given his extra time and she had to scramble to make that happen. I said my son needs to email her (and my dh too). And get her to acknowledge that she is aware he gets them for AP too. And he will send a reminder after winter break and before spring break and double check in May

I got an email back from the counselor. She was very very apologetic and is kicking herself from not calling him before the test and telling him where to go in person. Seems she figured it out at the END of the test and was quite frustrated herself. The proctor was instructed to send kids not on their list to her office. And ALL the other proctors that needed to do did this correctly. I'm still frustrated about the whole thing but not the much I can do. I'd done.. it's a one shot thing. It's probably not going to make or break anything, kid didn't study very much so probably had little shot at NM anyway. And it's the PSAT, universities won't see it. Coordinator promises me this will not happen at the AP exams and that the SAT's are done differently. DS did finish and answer every question but he did say that some of the math problems were harder than expected.

I think the plan of sending them to a room organized with all the other kids and then having the proctor send them somewhere else is TERRIBLE design. Teenager's and my son in particular don't want attention brought to the fact his is getting extra accommodations. He doesn't want his friends to see that he is being treated differently. Particularly at my H.S. Even though he is getting no where near the grades as many of the other kids he still has this mystique as that supper smart kid who was reading way before everyone else. Add to the fact that extra time on these test feels like cheating to DS so he really didn't feel like pushing the proctor.

Just really needed to VENT. It's not something I really discussing with most of my RL friends. Many don't really understand about the 2E thing. I was so excited last spring when I found out he was going to get the extra time and have found myself disappointed.

There are over 2,500 kids in DS's H.S. And I got there impression that there were at least a handful of kids getting extra time. Our school seems to be very successful in getting College board to grant extra time.

That is my hope also. DD14 is not at all into test prepping, but usually does quite well and has pretty much no test anxiety. I figure her relative score will be better against un/under-prepped kids than it would be most other years.

Last week her post-test mood was pretty much the same as always - when I ask how it went, I get a blase "Eh, it was OK."

Best of luck,
--S.F.

My son said the math was harder than the rest of it. He is pretty good in math, thinks very logically and thinks about life mathematically. He will take it next year for NM...he has decided he will test prep for it over the summer focusing on the math.

My son is good in math as well. He did quite well on the SAT II Math Subject test last spring with the extra time. That test theoretically has more advanced math concepts being tested. His comment refers to the difficulty of the math in the sample tests he did vs. in the what was on the actual test. Difference in expectation rather than the math was particularly difficult. The math in all the prep material we looked at wasn't aligned well with the actual test. Something like that is to be expected when you are the first year taking the test.