Sophomores receive PSAT results

CJ Aftergut

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CJ Aftergut, Staff Writer
January 22, 2010
Filed under News, Top Stories

On Thursday, January 14, a few hundred AHS students and parents met in the cafeteria for a program entitled “Understanding Your PSAT/NMSQT Results.” The program, whose title was taken literally, was the first one ever held by the AHS Guidance Department.

The event was run by guidance counselors Cheryl An and Jennifer Crump-Strawderman in an attempt to educate students and their parents about how to interpret their PSAT results. They also discussed a new online program called My College Quickstart.

After picking up their results, students sat down and waited for the program to start. Once most people had received their scores, An welcomed the crowd and proceeded to scroll through a PowerPoint about how to interpret one’s PSAT results.

When she was finished, she handed the microphone to Crump-Strawderman, who discussed the My College Quickstart program.

“It’s a fabulous opportunity for the students to prepare,” said Crump-Strawderman. “It’s completely personalized for each student based on his or her PSAT scores. Their results are there as well as the test booklet. There are also practice SATs and complete scoring guides and everything.”

In addition to practice SAT tests and suggestions for student study plans, My College Quickstart has practice essay prompts that students can answer online. After submitting their results for grading, students can compare their essay and results to those of real SAT test-takers to see what colleges look for and how to improve their writing skills. It even has an Express SAT sign-up to save time by allowing students to register online instead of bubbling in their information before the test.

After the event, Crump-Strawderman, who did not expect such a large crowd, felt that the program went well and cleared up a lot of questions. “We wanted to be able to share this information with parents and students,” she said following the presentation. “We had a lot of parents questioning us about the scores and we thought the program would be beneficial.”

Indeed it was. By the end of the night, many students had a much better idea of how to understand their results and prepare for the SAT exam.

“I went and got my results and then learned about how to interpret them,” said sophomore Anthony Young, who was one of the many students attending the event.

Sophomore Jak Scrivener also got a lot out of the event. “It was a very informative program and very helpful in discerning how well I did.

Though many people did attend the event, those who could not were able to pick up their results this week during lunch in the cafeteria. They will also be available for pick-up from the students’ guidance counselors. In addition, Ms. Crump-Strawderman is hoping to put a PowerPoint presentation on Family Connection where it will be available for all those in need of help interpreting their results and preparing themselves for the SAT.