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What do PSAT Scores Mean?
When your child takes the PSAT in October, you will get the results in December. If you just received your PSAT scores, you may want to know what those scores really mean. You can get more information here: College Board Score Report http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/psat/scores/report.html
When your child takes the PSAT next year, be sure to register your child as a homeschool student. When you do, the scores will come to you as quickly as they come to a school – which means you get the results a couple of weeks sooner. If you register your child as a student as the school where they take the test, then you will get the test results at the same time as other parents at the school.
Do you have more questions about high school tests? I have resources available to help.
Seniors
Parents need to fill out the FAFSA now, even if it is just an estimate. You can correct the FAFSA when you finish your taxes in April, but they need an estimate as soon as possible – every day later means missed financial aid.
Juniors
Register for the SAT or ACT, and take it in March. Plan your college visits; what colleges will you visit? What week will you go? It’s important to do these things now, so senior year goes well.
Sophomores
Look online at two colleges, a private and a public school. What do they want from homeschool students? What courses do you need? Do you need to take a subject test this year?
Freshmen
Be sure to cover the core classes: reading, writing, math, science, and history. Those are classes you need to cover every year.
Middle School
Avoid panic! Spend some time this month learning how to homeschool high school. That way next year you’ll begin high school feeling confident in your decision to homeschool.
Free Webinar! “Taking the Mystery out of the SAT & ACT Exams”
I’m so pleased to have the Institute for Excellence in Writing participate with this free webinar for homeschoolers. In it, I will explain the SAT and ACT. Then Andrew Pudewa will discuss how to teach essay writing for those tests. It will be a real meat-and-potatoes class filled with useable information, and I hope you can join us!
Andrew Pudewa is the founder, principal speaker, and director of the Institute for Excellence in Writing. Presenting throughout North America, he addresses issues relating to teaching, writing, thinking, spelling, and music with clarity, insight, practical experience, and humor. His seminars for parents, students and teachers have helped transform many a reluctant writer and have equipped educators with powerful tools to dramatically improve students’ skills. Although he is a graduate of the Talent Education Institute in Japan (Suzuki Method) and holds a Certificate of Child Brain Development, his best endorsement is from a young Alaskan boy who called him “the funny man with the wonderful words.” He and his beautiful, heroic wife Robin are parents of seven, grandparents of three, and educators to their two youngest children at home in Oklahoma’s Green Country.
Taking the Mystery out of the SAT & ACT Exams
with Andrew Pudewa of Institute for Excellence in Writing
Monday January 23
5:30pm – 6:30pm Pacific
6:30-7:30 Mountain
7:30-8:30 Central
8:30-9:30 Eastern
One of the times I heard you speak, you mentioned a certain publisher of literature books (classics) by a particular author that you had your boys read to prepare for the SAT. They were unique in the fact that on the back of each page words were defined.I cannot find that information in my file of notes from you. Do you recall those books, and would you mind sending me the name? Thank you for your time,
~ Valerie
What a good question! I love this question, because I can talk about one of my “favorite finds” for high school English! We used Kaplan books called “Score-Raising Classics. ” They have the real-literature text on the left hand page, and interesting vocabulary words are in bold (vocabulary words that are found on the SAT test, for example. ) On the right hand page is the bold words with their definition. I would generally read these books aloud to my children, one teenager on each side. As I read aloud, they were able to quickly grab any definitions that they needed, as they looked over my shoulder. It worked GREAT! Here is the link to one of those style of books, so you can see it:
We located a similar series of books for studying Shakespeare. The New Folger Library publisher, from Washington Square Press, has the same style for their Shakespeare. The vocabulary is in bold in the text. The right hand page has the bold words defined. It goes further – the difficult to understand phrases are also explained, to ensure you can fully grasp some of the Shakespearean context
as well. Here is a link to one of those books at Amazon:
I frequently mention these books when I talk about literature OR test preparation for the SAT, as they fit both needs at once.
I hope that helps!
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Are you an art person? Most people tend to either love the arts, or if you are like me you struggle with them. Even if you or your student struggle with the fine arts, colleges still want to see some on a high school transcript.
Applying to college doesn’t mean you’ll get in. And frankly, rejection HURTS. This letter is from Michelle, who shares her hurting heart and looks for words of encouragement and suggestions.
Hi Lee,
I guess I am writing you to just vent. My daughter applied to BYU-Idaho last month and she just received an email telling her that her homeschool transcript was not valid.
Here is the exact message: “Thank you for your interest in attending a CES school. We have received your home school transcript, but unfortunately, our office is unable to process it as it is not from an accredited institution. However, if you have attended an accredited high school institution and have additional credit from that institution, could you please send us that transcript? Thank you so much and have a nice day!”
I got your book a couple years ago, studied it and followed it very closely so I would have a transcript that would be taken seriously. I sent a transcript on official watermarked paper, used Transcript Pro to help me with the layout and included a separate course descriptions packet. Everything depended on the professionalism of the transcript and course descriptions because my daughter hasn’t take a single course that was accredited, due to finances. She took courses from accredited schools, but we couldn’t afford their record keeping services on top of the tuition. She did dual enrollment this year at a local private college and did very well.
Receiving this email from the college was like a slap in the face, especially since it was my and my husband’s alma mater. She has applied to two other colleges and now I am very nervous about her prospects and her future. Do you have any words of encouragement?
Thanks,
Michelle
Dear Michelle,
Vent away! Not everything works out perfectly, that’s for sure.
High School Graduation: Applicants should be graduates of fully accredited high schools. Those who complete their secondary education through the General Education Development Test (GED), home study, home school, or other programs will be reviewed individually by the Admissions Committee to determine admissibility. Additional information (achievement tests, personal interview, etc.) may be required as part of the application process.
I’d say “push back.” The policy looks similar to the University of California policy. Call the admission office and ask that your application packet be “individually reviewed.”
Better still, have your child call the admission office. Have your child quote their policy and ask them to review her application individually.
My own Alma Mater gave me a slap in the face, too. The University of Washington rejected our application until I called and asked for an individual review. It was AFTER that and AFTER they read my course description that we were given admission and good scholarships.
Home/Private School Information: Home school, private school, and charter school diplomas are only accepted from schools accredited with the following accrediting organizations. If your program is not accredited with one of the above organizations, you will be required to submit one of the following in addition to your ACT or SAT scores for the academic portion of your admission review: GED, COMPASS, 15 credits at an accredited college/university.
Your daughter HAS taken some accredited courses (or good-as accredited) if she took some dual enrollment classes. I would be sure to point that out to them. Make sure you have that college send a transcript to the university as well. That alone could change everything.
You might also give them some feedback based on the wording of their rejection. Another mom did that, and was quite successful. You can read the story here: College Policy Discourages Homeschool Applicants.
And remember, this is not an easy college to get into anyway. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, but apply to a variety of other schools as well. Another mom contributed to a blog post last year, and perhaps some of her words will also help you: Lessons Learned from College Rejections.
Learn the SECRET to getting your student placed at the TOP of the stack for college admission consideration as well as one of those MASSIVE university scholarships. Get the Comprehensive Record Solution!
How do you write a letter of recommendation about your own child? Often the letters of recommendation from teachers are enough, but remember that you want to do things exactly the way the school wants them (as long as it doesn’t contradict your values, right?) Do it their way, make it easy on them, and they will love you more and throw money at you If a college wants a letter of recommendation from the parent, give it to them. Often they want that information so they can check off a box on the application. Don’t over-think it too much, just give it to them.
Here are some resources from the College Board on letters of recommendation:
My big tip on the letter of recommendation: brag, don’t critique. When counselors write a letter of recommendation, they only say the good things, not the bad stuff. Use that time to explain anything unusual. You can explain why your student took calculus but received a low math SAT score, or why junior year grades were the lowest.
Members of my Gold Care Club can receive tips like these on our weekly phone calls.
What if you don’t read the WHOLE book – what do you do with that? How does it fit into your course description when you didn’t finish every word of it? Julie asked some questions about her course descriptions…
Hello Lee.
I’m finding your book Setting the Records Straight quite helpful as I learn to write course descriptions. That’s triggered three hopefully simple questions though.
May I use the course descriptions from the book, both the page layout and the actual sentences describing the course, as a starting point for my own?
If only part of a book is read, do I indicate that with something like Title (Partially read)?
Are supplemental texts assumed to have been read in entirety unless noted?
I want to be honest in reporting what texts we used, but it seems we should not have to finish the whole thing to make it count. For example, we used the sourcebook of primary texts from The History of US for American history, but we certainly did not read the entire thing. Thanks for your advice!
Julie
Dear Julie,
Thanks for writing! Yes, the purpose of the book is for you to imitate it, and even your course descriptions word for word – that’s perfectly fine! For the reading list, author and title is enough. You can say “Excerpts” by books that were not completed. I was JUST speaking to another mom about this a few minutes ago, too. Remember those English Textbooks in high school? They NEVER have whole books, they are ALL excerpts. Even in college the books were that way – drove my kids crazy in college when they were supposed to read just 5 chapters or whatever. So the word you want to use is “excerpts.” Supplemental texts are not necessarily used in their entirety. But if you used them at all, you put it on there. For example, some moms use a history textbook more as a timeline guide, and don’t refer to it much at all, relying on hands-on or literature for history. But you still put it on the supplemental text list.
Homeschool records that open doors! Learn how to create records of your homeschool that will attract the attention of your dream college.
I am praying you can help answer this. How do I know, if she will do better on ACT or the SAT? I want her to go with the test that best fits her. Any ideas on this? Thank you for your help,
~ Bertie in Washington
Dear Bertie,
You can’t find out until she has utilized a trial test at home. Just a sample test at home, one for SAT and also one for ACT. After that, find the one that will make her seem smarter. You can’t tell upfront. One third perform better on one, a third do better on the other, and a third do about the same. Has she taken the PSAT or SAT before? Either of those can give you her SAT score, then she simply needs to receive a sample ACT for you to find a comparison.
Taking a sample ACT and SAT is in all probability the single most effective strategy to enhance your likelihood of great scholarships, so I really encourage you to do that – and now could be a good time to get it accomplished! It does require 3-4 hours (and it’s a real pain, I understand! ) However it could mean THOUSANDS of dollars, which means it’s more than worth it.
After you figure out which test is best, then register her right away. After registering, you want to figure out what each college policy is for tests. Several require you to send all scores. Others need you to only send your BEST scores.
Do you have more questions about high school tests? I have resources available to help.
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If a college wants a letter of recommendation from the parent, give it to them. Often they want that information so they can check off a box on the application. Don’t over-think it too much, just give it to them.
Christianbook.com Curriculum Page
