We would like to welcome back our friend and colleague Bill Huston from Mindfish Test Prep for a special Power Half-Hour event this week! Bill is the owner and co-founder of Mindfish and our "go-to" guy for all things standardized testing related! 

We have been getting a ton of questions regarding the PSAT now that many freshmen and sophomores have just completed it - so we figured the timing of this live event was crucial! 

Today we are going to cover the following: 

• The new digital SAT
• How to read a PSAT score report
• What is a National Merit Scholar and how do you qualify? 
• Conversations on "doing the RIGHT thing" when no one is looking

All right, let's get started.

2

So welcome, everybody.

3

My name is Laura Barr.

4

I'm the owner and founder of

Emerging Educational Consulting.

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We provide one to one mentorship for

students from the beginning to end

6

of the college application process,

and my mantra is that we're in the

7

business of growing good humans.

8

And what better way to

do that than to educate.

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I feel like if we can educate parents

and students, we can make the process

10

simple, deliberate, and joyful.

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So I'm super excited to have Bill, best

friend, colleague in college admissions.

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Bill, I couldn't do anything without you.

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And so many of our students have been

a part of the Mindfish community.

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You and I were talking last week

and we kind of pulled an audible and

15

said, let's make this, let's make this

podcast happen today because there's a

16

lot of pressing questions specifically

related to huge changes around S.

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A.

18

T.

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Let's just start.

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Well, first, just quickly introduce

yourself and then why don't you

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just dive straight into Digital S.

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A.

23

T.

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What's the scoop?

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Yeah, absolutely.

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Hi, everybody.

27

My name is Bill Houston.

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I am the co owner and co

founder of mind fish test prep.

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Hence my sweet little hat here.

30

We've been lucky enough to

collaborate closely with Laura and

31

her team at emerging for many years.

32

Working with students on SAT, ACT

prep, working with students on

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academic tutoring, even working with

younger students on ISEE, SSAT prep.

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Those are tests to get into independent

middle schools and high schools.

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So Laura and I have been

working closely for a long time.

36

And as she said, you know, we were,

we were chatting last week and we

37

said, you know, why don't we just

record this conversation and we can

38

send it out to people because a lot

of you all have the same questions.

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So what we do at Mindfish

is primarily one on one test

40

preparation, tutoring, and also a

lot of one on one academic tutoring.

41

We're kind of in the thick of the

testing and test prep seasons right

42

now, given that we're in mid November.

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Can't believe we're in

mid November, actually.

44

But a lot of students took

the PSAT last month, October.

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A lot of students are prepping

right now for the SAT and ACT.

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Maybe.

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As soon as December, maybe

in the spring semester.

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and for juniors specifically,

the college prep process is

49

kind of heating up right now.

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So I'm talking to a lot of families

every day about this stuff and

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really happy to chat with you, Laura,

today, about some of the questions

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that are coming up all the time.

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So one that has come up very recently

and very often is the new digital S.

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A.

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T.

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And I've got I've got a PDF little

PowerPoint deal I'll share with you guys.

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This is way too much information

for what we're doing today.

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But Laura, I can also share it

with you and you can put it in the

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community if you want, whoever,

whoever would benefit from it.

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So the digital SAT is imminent,

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A lot of students who are

juniors, and actually some younger

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students as well, just took the

digital PSAT for the first time.

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The last paper and pencil SAT,

We'll be in December, December 2nd.

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And then starting in March, the paper and

pencil SAT and PSAT will be gone for good.

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And we're now in the

world of the digital SAT.

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So this is a pretty seismic shift to use

a cliched phrase in the testing world.

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Uh, you know, not to date myself,

but since I've been doing this

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work, I've dealt with five

different versions of the S.

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A.

70

T.

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Since the late nineties, and this

is the biggest change that I've

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seen in the last 25 years to the S.

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A.

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T.

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You know, again, this is way more

information in this, this slide deck

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than we have time to cover today.

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But here's a glimpse of the

current paper version of the S.

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A.

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T.

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Here's a glimpse of the new version.

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Um, big changes.

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The new version, the new

digital test will be shorter.

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It will be adaptive, which means the

content that any student sees later in

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the test is based on his or her answers

on questions earlier in the test.

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So if you do well at the beginning,

You're going to see more challenging

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content later in the test.

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Um, this is interesting.

88

We'll talk about this in a second.

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But the college board is being

pretty cagey, not sharing tests

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or scales like they used to.

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And the biggest thing is.

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All the work's gonna be done on a screen.

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We got this digital app called blue book.

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And that's gonna be pretty

radically different than the

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old mode of paper and pencil.

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Again, I'll share this, but there

are some content differences

97

that are fairly different.

98

Also, notably, You look at

the slide I just shared.

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This is a reading passage on the new test.

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It's only like three sentences,

four sentences long, and there's

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one question attached to it.

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So we're not going to see anything

like this on the old test where you

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had a page and a half and then on

this one, there would be 12 questions.

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Now, all of the reading and writing

questions are one very short passage

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with only one question attached to them.

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So the long form reading

comprehension of the old test is gone.

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And we've got this short

form going forward.

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So, you know, I could

talk about this all day.

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Let me look at some other slides here.

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I think this is, I mean, this is amazing.

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I think this is enough overview.

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I think, you know, one of the things

that is, I'm going to ask real quick

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at it, God, we could talk for like a

full hour about, learning differences

114

and challenges, people who have.

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Challenges there.

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What's happening with that?

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And then I'm just curious.

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Well, let's answer that first

and then I'll ask you the next.

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Love it.

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Laura, you read my minds cause

we were in sync like that.

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And I've got, , one of my

next slides, digital SAT for

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students with accommodations.

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This is a big deal.

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Actually.

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One of my close colleagues at

mind fish is herself dyslexic and

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is passionate about working with

neurodivergent students on test prep.

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So I've spent a lot of time talking

with my colleague Haley about this.

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We work with a lot of

neurodivergent students, both

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with test prep and executive

functioning and academic tutoring.

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This is an interesting shift because

as it says here, historically, the

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ACT was usually, or often the better

test for students with accommodations.

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I don't think that's

gonna be the case anymore.

133

The ACT is still going to be a

good test for some students with

134

accommodations, but think about that

short form verbal format that we just

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looked at on the new digital SAT.

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We really think, both in our own research

and from talking to students, that this

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new digital format could be a really

good fit for some students with ADHD.

138

Now another positive, there's

a built in calculator for

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the new digital test as well.

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It's called Desmos.

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Could be a great fit for students

with dyscalculia, dyscalculia

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or dysgraphia in some cases.

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However, the digital SAT might be a tough

test for students with, in some cases,

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dyslexia or other visual impairments.

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Think about this, if we're doing

the digital SAT, all of the content

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is on the screen in front of you.

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Now you can have scratch paper in

the test, but if you're a student

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with dyslexia or some kind of visual

difference, in some cases, you're,

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you're transcribing the stuff on the

screen to the paper in front of you.

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Let's say it's on a math question.

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You write down the math equations on

the paper, you do your work there.

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So you're transcribing it to

the paper, doing your work.

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Then you're transcribing your

answers back to the screen.

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That's hard for some

neurodivergent students, right?

155

Historically, we've seen a lot of kiddos

who over the years will do great work on

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paper and then like bubble in the wrong

answer on the old school Scantron sheets.

157

That's sort of the same thing, but

now kind of amped up on this new test.

158

If you're transcribing to the

paper and then back to the screen

159

for some students, it might be a

challenge to do that accurately.

160

Um, this all comes down to

something that I just firmly

161

believe in this work in general.

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And Laura, you kind of hinted at

this at the beginning of the talk.

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This is a unique journey for each

unique individual going through

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this college preparation process.

165

So for some students, digital tests

might be great for their accommodations.

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For other students, the ACT

might still be the better choice.

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So I never generalize.

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I always try to craft this journey on

a really unique and customized level.

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For each individual student.

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We've got this cheesy phrase in our

business, which is the tests are

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standardized, but students are not.

172

Mm-Hmm.

173

. So, yeah.

174

Kind of corny, but it's very true.

175

Um, so we always go out of our way

to, to do a lot of diagnostic testing,

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talk to families, talk to students

very closely, and figure out what

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the best path is for each student.

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Great.

179

We're not going to get

into test optional today.

180

That will be another audible.

181

We pull maybe talk about

test optional because I feel

182

like that's a hot topic too.

183

I think 1 of the, um, I think 1

of the things that came up that

184

started this conversation was.

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The PSAT scores are coming in.

186

Yeah.

187

I actually have a, a, uh, someone in

who's in our group right now just said

188

her daughter took the PSAT, she has a

adhd and she loved the short reading.

189

She said it was a lot less

frustrating than flipping back

190

and forth to look at the answers.

191

So I think that's great.

192

Um, I'm, I wanna talk

about the PSAT because.

193

I reached out to you because I could

not understand the score report.

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What does this mean?

195

This looks so different.

196

You help us understand how to read

that report and then also address.

197

What is National Merit Scholar, and

what does it mean you qualify to be

198

one, and then what happens after that?

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How does that all work?

200

Yeah, it's a complex process, and

I mean, you know, you're like a

201

lifelong professional educator,

and you look at these reports

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and you're like, what is this?

203

I mean, imagine, you know,

students or their parents at

204

home looking at these things.

205

They're complicated.

206

So yeah, let's look at it.

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So I've got...

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A psat score report here.

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I'll share my screen again.

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We can look at it together.

211

Um, and let's see here.

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There we go.

213

Everybody can see that.

214

So here's a psat score report

that I looked at recently.

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And it's this is actually pretty

short, but there's still a fair

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amount of information here.

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And a little bit of it

is somewhat misleading.

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So the main thing on the psat score

report is this the total score.

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Now the PSAT scaled out of 1520

points instead of the SAT, which.

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If you took it back in the day, it's

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that's a little misleading in itself.

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What the college board has told us for

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PSAT is the same as a 1280 on the SAT.

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So even though they're out of

different total numbers of points,

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the scores mean the exact same thing.

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That's a point of confusion

for a lot of parents.

227

Like someone with this test might be

228

Is what out of 1600 and like

convert the score in that manner.

229

You don't need to do that.

230

You don't want to do that.

231

1280 means 1280.

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So even though the score totals are

different, the score means the same thing.

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So it's 1280 out of 1520 here.

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Um, and that's a total

of the 650 and the 630.

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So 650 on reading and writing,

um, which used to be two different

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sections, actually one more

change on the new digital test.

237

Is that reading and writing are packed

together as one overall verbal section.

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And then you've got your math section.

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So the 12, eight is just the

total of those two subscores.

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A lot of parents and students will

put great weight on these percentiles.

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So this is a 90, 12, eight

is a 91st percentile score.

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Overall verbal was 80.

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8th percentile math was 91st percentile.

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I don't, you know, I don't really look at

those that much and neither do colleges.

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Colleges look at 1280.

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So you might be tempted

to say, oh, 91st 88.

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What does that mean?

248

Honestly, not that much.

249

I would just look at the 1280.

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That's going to be the more

important school score.

251

What's the star?

252

What's the star next to it?

253

It says the percentiles are based

out of 11th graders who took this

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task over the last three years.

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Last three years.

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Okay.

257

And just to clarify one thing I

said just a second ago, I said

258

colleges care about the 12 80.

259

Just to be clear.

260

Colleges don't care about your PSAT score.

261

Really?

262

They care about your SAT and ACT scores.

263

So really bottom line, if you take home

one thing about the PSAT from this chat

264

today, it's really just a practice test.

265

It's not going to determine

your chances of admissions

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at any college or university.

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Schools don't look at it.

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Now, the National Merit.

269

System looks at it.

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And you asked about that, Laura, we're

gonna talk about that in a second.

271

But for purposes of college admissions, no

one's really looking at your PSAT scores.

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You can think of the P the P

means preliminary, SAT, but I, you

273

can think of it as practice SAT.

274

'cause there there's really

no stakes to taking this test.

275

what the colleges do use this task

for is to market themselves and

276

send you a ton of information.

277

, the, the college board has this

program called connections, and if

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you sign up for connections, you're

basically enabling, you're allowing

279

the college board to share your contact

info and your score with schools.

280

And back in my day, a distant and

281

schools got these scores and they got

the information, They would just like

282

blast your, your physical snail mail

mailbox with colorful pamphlets and

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literature and all this kind of stuff.

284

Now it's really email,

as you would imagine.

285

But, the PSAT, so in one sense,

the PSAT is like the opening of the

286

floodgates for, for your student

to get a ton of information from

287

colleges who are trying to kind of

market themselves to your kiddo.

288

Let's talk about National Merit.

289

So you look over here on the side here.

290

We've got National Merit Scholarship

Corporation, and we've got

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this National Merit Scholarship

Corporation Selection Index score.

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So, for this particular test taker,

the selection index, sometimes

293

called the SI for short, is 193.

294

And what the 193 is, let me put

in my teacher mode real quick.

295

And annotate this thing.

296

So what the 1 93 is, is we're going

to take your, your reading score.

297

, hold on, hold on, everybody.

298

We'll take your reading

score with, Oh, come on.

299

How do I do this?

300

Laura?

301

I can't even figure out how to write.

302

Maybe the one right above there.

303

Yeah, it's like black.

304

Well, I don't know.

305

Maybe I'll put it in a text box.

306

That would be easier.

307

there we go.

308

So what we're going to do here is

take your reading score, which is 650.

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This is like an SAT problem by

itself, divided by 10 times two.

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And actually this is like,

again, an SAT problem in itself.

311

Plus.

312

Your math score equals

your selection index.

313

So that's a, it looks a little bit

weird, but basically what we're just

314

taking the zero off the end of this,

multiplying it by two, and then we're

315

adding the math score divided by 10.

316

So the math score without the zero.

317

And so this is going to be, if we do the

math, it's going to be one 30 plus 63.

318

That's how we get to one 93.

319

So that's what the selection score means.

320

Essentially, interestingly, we're

double counting the verbal score.

321

So we're adding two parts

verbal and one part math to get

322

your selection in next school.

323

And somebody asked me earlier this

week, actually, why is the math

324

worth half as much as the verbal?

325

I honestly have no idea.

326

I don't know why they do it that way.

327

But that's how they do it.

328

And.

329

That's how they get again

your selection index score.

330

That's the score that is going to qualify

students for the national merit process.

331

Now, Laura, this is what you reached

out to me, excuse me, about last week.

332

It says you meet the entry

requirements for the national

333

merit scholarship program.

334

Look on page two for more info.

335

So we go to page two, you meet the

entry requirements just to be fair.

336

I should have just looked at this

because it's so much cleaner.

337

There's, there's the

selection index formula.

338

, the, this information to me is misleading.

339

1 93, the selection index 1 93

does not mean that you qualify as

340

a national merit semifinalist or

finalist or national merit scholar.

341

What this is saying is because this

student is enrolled in high school,

342

is currently a junior, and we'll

go to high school for four years.

343

They are entered in the

consideration for them to become

344

recognized by the national merit.

345

Right.

346

So this means like you, you've entered

the running for potentially becoming

347

a national merit, semifinalist,

finalist or scholar down the road.

348

, and, and this number kind of

gives it away along with 1.

349

3 million other kiddos.

350

You're in the running to be considered.

351

For this recognition down the road.

352

now again, that's that's based only on

the fact that this student is in high

353

school for four years and is now a junior.

354

The qualifying is going to be

determined by the 1 93, the

355

selection index down the road.

356

And I'll stop my screen share here.

357

I'll show you some other stuff.

358

So.

359

This gets pretty nuanced and I'll

share this screen here for a second.

360

Here are the steps.

361

I like this flowchart a lot

of how national merit works.

362

So here's our 1.

363

3 million entrants who are in high school

and are not currently juniors, right?

364

Of those people, 50, 000 students.

365

Will qualify as either

commended or semi finalist.

366

And that's where that selection index

number, the 193 that we're just looking

367

at, that's where that comes into play.

368

I'll look at another screen real quick.

369

Class of 2025, which is the class

we're talking about who are juniors

370

right now, we estimate or people

in the industry estimate that a 208

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selection index will qualify Current

juniors as national merit commended.

372

Recipients that's if we look back over

here, 34, 000 students will be commended.

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So they hit that 208 or thereabouts and

they now have the distinction of being

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called a National Merit commended students

slightly higher scores, 16, 000 of them

375

nationally will qualify as semifinalists.

376

So, Laura and I both live in Colorado.

377

This is a state by state cutoff criteria.

378

We think the cutoff in the state

of Colorado for the current junior

379

class, class of 2025, will be 217.

380

And you can see the last 3

years in Colorado have been

381

216, 217, somewhere thereabouts.

382

Colorado is kind of in the,

You know, starting to be

383

the more competitive states.

384

If we look at it here,

most competitive Jersey, D.

385

C.

386

Massachusetts, but again,

Colorado is up there with the 217.

387

so it's, it's tough to qualify

for national merit here

388

in the state of Colorado.

389

and that's again where we're looking

at that three digit selection index

390

score to either qualify as a commended

student or as a semifinalist.

391

We go back to our flow chart of those

16, 000, 15, 000 will become finalists.

392

And to, to become a finalist,

that's something else here.

393

And I can share all these links with

you, Laura, if you want to spread them

394

out there on our, on our community.

395

I'll just put it, post

it in our community.

396

I think that'd be great.

397

Yeah, that would be awesome.

398

So to become a finalist, you

first have to be a semifinalist,

399

get that selection index.

400

In Colorado, about 217 or higher.

401

Then you have to have a letter of

endorsement from your principal or another

402

official at your school recommending

you to the National Merit program.

403

You have to keep your grades up.

404

This doesn't mean you have to have

perfect all A's or anything like this,

405

but your grades have to be basically like.

406

Pretty good A's and B's

to to check off that box.

407

And you have to take an S.

408

A.

409

T.

410

or A.

411

C.

412

T.

413

sometime in the next year.

414

Now, this is old.

415

This is the net.

416

This is a 2024.

417

we're talking about the class of 2025 now.

418

So, for our current juniors,

they'll need to take an S.

419

A.

420

T.

421

or an A.

422

C.

423

T.

424

Before January 1 of 2025.

425

Right?

426

So you've got over a year to do this.

427

You have to take an SAT

or ACT and do pretty well.

428

It's not nearly as

competitive as the PSAT.

429

You just can't like completely tank

the SAT or ACT and still be a finalist.

430

If you qualified as a semifinalist, as you

can tell by these numbers, 15, 000 of the

431

16, 000 semifinalists become finalists.

432

So most of the students will

will go on to be finalists.

433

From there at the end of the process,

we've got about 7, 100 merit scholarship

434

winners who qualify for scholarships

to help them pay for college.

435

Note the number here.

436

2, 500 is what most of

these scholarships are for.

437

Now, I would love 2, 500.

438

It's a lot of money.

439

But in the cost of, in the consideration

of the cost of a college education

440

these days, it's not that much.

441

When we're talking about private schools

charging 80, 90, 000 a year for a

442

college education still helps, everything

helps, but it's not a ton of money.

443

Some of these that said some

of these corporate sponsored

444

scholarships can be up to 10, 000.

445

Some of the special scholarships can

be more than the 2, 500 as well, but

446

the vast majority of national merit.

447

Scholars who get money at the

end of the process get 2, 500

448

from from National Merit itself.

449

That's a lot of hoops.

450

That is a lot of hoop jumping for 2, 500.

451

I'm really glad that you said that

because I think that was shocking to me

452

when I transitioned from my practice,

you know, 10 years ago to college.

453

I was like National Merit, it sounded

like this great award and it was such an

454

honor and it's like these kids go through

so much and only 7, 500 even get it.

455

And then 2, 500.

456

Right.

457

That was shocking to me.

458

All in the, and it's

all sourced in the PSAT.

459

So totally.

460

And so, you know, playing off of

that, Laura, one thing I would tell

461

everyone watching this, don't stress

that much about national merit, right?

462

It gets, it is a lot of

hoops to jump through.

463

It is, you know, national merit's

got this big title, right?

464

It's not a make or break consideration

for most students, either on a financial

465

level or on a college admissions level.

466

I don't think it's wrong.

467

It looks good, right?

468

If you're applying to a top, you know,

super selective school and you can

469

say, I'm a national merit scholar,

I'm a national merit finalist.

470

They like that, but it's not going to make

or break your admissions to that school.

471

Well, the problem too is they don't

get it if they're applying early.

472

They don't get the actual final award.

473

They could say finalists

are in consideration of it.

474

They can't actually even want it.

475

So that's another thing.

476

Well, I, gosh, this time is going so fast.

477

And I think, I do have a couple of

questions from the audience, so see

478

if I can answer those, question.

479

My daughter didn't finish

the PSAT reading or writing.

480

She does not have an IEP or

any other kind of diagnosis is

481

practice going to be the best way.

482

For her to move more quickly,

I would assume we're not

483

so worried about the PSAT.

484

But as we move to the SAT, digital SAT,

like what is the best way to practice?

485

You're gonna have to be fast because

I have one really important thing

486

I want to say at the end of this.

487

Love it.

488

Yes, real quick before I answer

that question, you mentioned

489

something you won't know if you're

a national merit scholar when

490

you apply to school next year.

491

Real quick on the timeline.

492

Semi finalist cutoffs aren't even

493

So that that selection index to 17 that we

estimate in Colorado, we won't know that

494

for sure until almost a year from now.

495

So it's a little ways down the road.

496

And just to pick up on that a little

bit more, don't go out of your way.

497

Don't stress about national merit.

498

Most of the students who apply

Kind of just do their thing

499

and they end up applying.

500

It's not something that they're

stressed about or really

501

making a concerted push for.

502

Now, great question.

503

How do you use the PSAT to then

prep for the SAT going forward?

504

There are a lot of great tools to do that.

505

I'll pull up the, the score report I

shared a second ago, which is this guy.

506

And so notice.

507

In math, it's broken down into algebra,

advanced math, problem solving, and

508

data analysis, and geometry, and trig.

509

So this student graded algebra maybe

needs a little bit more practice

510

on the other three sections.

511

Check this out.

512

There is an educator question bank on the

college board website where, as it says,

513

there are thousands of test questions.

514

So your student can look

at his or her, their PSA.

515

I'm not sharing my screen.

516

Hold on.

517

Your student can look

at their score report.

518

And say, Oh, I need help on

problem solving and data analysis.

519

You go to this question

bank, choose the assessment.

520

I'm going to say SAT because we're

using the PSAT to then prep for an SAT.

521

We'll look at math, boom, problem

solving and data analysis.

522

We're going to search the question bank.

523

277 practice test questions come

up and these are official questions

524

written by the college board.

525

So we can say even, okay.

526

Within problem solving and data analysis,

maybe I need help with percentages.

527

Let's look at all these percentages.

528

We'll just put them together.

529

You can build your own custom

worksheets to practice this stuff.

530

So that's a really powerful tool from

the PSAT score report to learn from that.

531

And then prep for the SAT down the

road now to address the specific

532

question that Laura just mentioned,

will practice help you get faster?

533

100%.

534

It's, you know, another cheesy phrase.

535

Practice makes perfect.

536

Absolutely true on the test prep front.

537

and that's one thing I really

like about the digital test.

538

Actually, a lot of score reports, not

the PSAT, but like, for instance, the

539

score reports we use in mind fish,

we actually now have data for exactly

540

how long it took students to answer

every question on a practice test.

541

And so when they're working

with a tutor, we can say, Hey,

542

you got this question, right?

543

But it took you five minutes and

you missed like six questions

544

after that, probably because

you're running out of time.

545

So the digital format gives this whole

other layer of analysis, which is

546

how much time students are spending

on these questions and really lets

547

us dig in to help them strategize.

548

So yes, practice will help a student

go more quickly, but there's also

549

a wealth of data from this digital

format that we can leverage.

550

to help students learn how to

manage their time better and to

551

become more efficient and effective.

552

It's amazing.

553

Thank you so much for sharing.

554

I have another question.

555

Do we have stats from the recent digital

PSAT showing whether average scores

556

changed compared To the paper test?

557

In general, no.

558

But within my or my own organization,

yes, because we have a lot of students

559

who took paper tests last year and

then digital tests, in October.

560

I, I haven't crunched the numbers to

come up with an average, but I would say.

561

Most students are either doing

better or about the same as

562

what they did on the paper test.

563

And that's not true for everyone.

564

As I've said a few minutes ago, I think

there's a really individual process.

565

So we certainly have students

who hated the new test also.

566

But in general, I've seen a lot of

students do at least as well as they

567

did on the paper test previously.

568

And students like this thing.

569

Honestly, they're expressing that

they're they like the new test

570

saying that I have been surprised.

571

They're like, that was fun.

572

I know it really well.

573

Like, there's a very positive feeling.

574

And I wonder if that's what I'm

not sure what that's all about.

575

I do have something that might be

a difficult conversation to have.

576

Yeah, which is, yeah.

577

There's some murmurings that

with digital, there may be more

578

opportunities for, students to

not make always the best choice.

579

We could use the word cheating.

580

I don't like that word because it's

so dramatic, but it's that idea of do

581

the right thing when nobody's looking

in both the practice and everything.

582

Is there, is there any truth to that?

583

Do you have, has anybody been

talking to you about that?

584

Yeah, really interesting question.

585

Actually, the first thing I would say.

586

A lot of people have asked me,

Oh, the new test is online.

587

Can't you just look up your

answers while you're doing it?

588

we're talking about the

new digital SAT and PSAT.

589

The answer is emphatically no.

590

The official test is given on this,

this digital platform called Bluebook.

591

It basically locks you out of any other

apps on your screen at that, you know,

592

that could be on your screen at that time.

593

Importantly, also, the test is not online.

594

It's actually given on a digital platform,

but your computer basically downloads

595

the whole thing onto your machine.

596

So you're doing it locally.

597

You're not like actually on the

World Wide Web taking this test.

598

That's kind of a technical distinction,

but I think it's an important one.

599

So, I mean, the College Board is

like a billion dollar non profit

600

organization with a lot of really,

really smart people working there.

601

They've designed this thing

to be totally foolproof.

602

You just, because it's on your computer in

front of you, you cannot look up answers.

603

To the point where if you like

power down your computer on purpose.

604

And try to start it up again and

like, look up some stuff in between.

605

You, they won't let you do that.

606

, and so it's, it's, it's very foolproof

and you know, this is not new technology.

607

Other high stakes tasks like the GRE and

the GMAT have been digital for many years.

608

the ACT has been giving

digital ACTs outside of the U

609

S for five or six years now.

610

So anyway, yeah, students will

not be able to look up answers

611

on the new digital test.

612

It does bring up another point

though, which is we, in my company,

613

mind fish, we give practice

tests to students all the time.

614

and we started back in 2020 doing a lot

of tests on zoom for obvious reasons.

615

COVID hit, we used to do a ton

of in person practice tests.

616

All of a sudden spring 2020,

we're like, okay, we're going

617

to proctor these things online.

618

And students are going

to take them out at home.

619

And right away, starting in 2020, we had

students who were pretty, pretty clearly

620

looking up answers for these tasks.

621

It's not hard.

622

You know, mind fish, we only use

official practice tasks that were

623

released by the college board or the ACT.

624

And so our students are

all digital natives.

625

They've, they've developed

skills for finding information.

626

And I don't mean that in a negative

way, you know, part of being a digital

627

native is knowing how to use the digital

tools that you have at your disposal.

628

to do your work to get stuff done.

629

But I think we've had a lot

of stressed out students over

630

the last three years or so.

631

Who've been looking up answers

on practice tests and it's

632

been a little bit challenging.

633

But any students out there, any

parents out there, I would just

634

reiterate, you know, it's important

to do your own work on these tests.

635

If you're looking up answers on practice

tests, first of all, you're sort of short

636

circuiting your own prep and there's no

way to game the system on the real thing.

637

So I urge you.

638

to just take these tests in as

realistic a manner as possible.

639

Put your phone away, close your browser,

open the test for the first time when

640

you're doing it in your practice test

setting, it's only going to help.

641

Great.

642

We're going to wind this down.

643

I think , what you just said kind

of warmed my heart and hurt my

644

heart in a way that this process.

645

Adding this level of testing is

stressful for kids and for parents,

646

and there's a lot of misinformation

about what's test optional, what's not

647

test optional, what does that mean?

648

And we're not gonna get into that today.

649

I just read, , Jennifer Wallace's

book Never Enough this past weekend.

650

Yeah.

651

And you know this, a lot of this is,

I know the parents that I work with, I

652

mean, I work with loving parents who are.

653

I mean, I pretty much hand selected

the parents that I work with for

654

parents who are more holistic, right?

655

But even, and I know from raising my four

kids that it doesn't even matter if you,

656

if you raise your kids that way, they

still feel the stress from their friends,

657

from the parents, from the conversations.

658

And all of that.

659

And I think it's just is a good

reminder for all families that

660

there is a college for everyone.

661

There are so many, a hundred percent.

662

I think, , your approach is also

so holistic and I, I love hearing,

663

you being able to help us and all

of this information, and we'll

664

just keep the conversation going

and if anybody else has anymore.

665

Questions.

666

, just let us know and we can, , in our

community, you can keep asking questions

667

and I will follow up with questions that

didn't get answered in our 30 minutes.

668

We went over today, which I don't

usually let happen, but I had to

669

hear, I had to hear your answer.

670

Thanks.

671

And just, you know, to say a quick

word on that again, Laura, it

672

is a stressful process for a lot

of families, a lot of students.

673

There's another book that's been

really popular in recent years by Jeff

674

called who gets in and why he makes

this point, this point over and over.

675

You will go to college.

676

It's actually easier to get into college

than it ever has been because there

677

are just more options for students.

678

Now it's harder to get into

Harvard than it's ever been, but.

679

If you want to go to college and find

your passion and find your, your area of

680

study and build a career, you will do it.

681

And in this process, Laura was

hinting at this a second ago.

682

It can be stressful.

683

My job as a test prep guy, I know

Laura thinks a big part of her job

684

as a college admissions consultant.

685

is to help de stress this process.

686

That's why we do events like this.

687

That's why we, we, you know, run

our businesses in the way we do.

688

It's to be an empathetic advocate

for students and families and to

689

try to help navigate this process

with less stress and less mental

690

anguish, and still be successful.

691

That, that's the way I've

always thought about it.

692

And I know Laura's on the same page.

693

So, you know, we're here and if,

you know, there, there's a network

694

of people who are like us, who are

out there, you know, to advocate

695

for students and families as well.

696

So the resources and the,

you know, the people are out

697

there, if you seek them out.

698

Thank you.

699

Boom.

700

That's a great way to end.

701

Thank you so much.

702

I, we are so grateful.

703

Thank you.

704

Everybody who joined us today.

705

We really appreciate it.

706

Thanks everybody.

707

Thanks, Laura.

708

Bye.