Join Angie Austin and Jim Stovall as they dive into the importance of relationships over material success, inspired by the Harvard Happiness Study. Angie shares her inspiring journey of rekindling old friendships and the adventures that have enriched her life. Jim adds a touch of humor with his own elk encounter story, showcasing how cherished moments with loved ones make life truly fulfilling.
00:23:01 Understanding Test Scores and College Prep
SPEAKER 01 :
Welcome to the good news with Angie Austin now with the good news
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey there, friend, Angie Austin and Jim Stovall with the good news. Hello, Jim Stovall.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, hello, Angie Austin. It’s great to be back with you.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, my goodness. I can’t wait to tell you what I did this weekend. First of all, you and I have for the last probably two years been talking about the Harvard Happiness Study, which started in the 1930s, has been going on for decades. Every two years, people would get a questionnaire. They’d either fill it out or, you know, sometimes the questions were in person. And then they followed generations of people to find out what true happiness, you know, how you come about it. And they found that a career, you know, your fancy car, how much money you make, all of that was secondary to the number one indicator of happiness. Relationships, connections, and family. So over the course of the last couple of years since you and I started talking about it, I’ve rekindled some important relationships that, you know, over the years fall by the wayside, you know, your high school best friends, you know. I’ve got a bunch of friends from NBC in Los Angeles that I worked with in my 20s and 30s, and we used to travel a lot, and I told you recently that In the last six months, we started traveling again. So one of the girls, Tracy Savage, one of my favorite reporter and anchor friends, she’s also – she was in Friday the 13th, and she did a lot of acting when she was young. Anyway, she and I just took our sixth trip of our lifetimes, but our third in the last few months. And we went to – they all came out, my NBC friends. There were four of us. We went up to the Rocky Mountain National Park, and we went to Estes Park outside of there – And stayed at the YMCA of the Rockies. And we saw, you know, I don’t think people realize they think, oh, elk and deer, they’re similar. Elk are as big as my Tesla. Like as I was driving through the park, the elk that came near my car that ran past the front of my car ran. It was the size of my car. And we got to see them up close. Literally, I hid behind my car as this elk rushed. The three other males were trying to move in on his harem. And so he, from time to time, would rush them. Now, I didn’t see them fight with their racks. But, you know, he ran them off. And the clip that those things can move when they pick up speed is mind-blowing, especially when they move within a car length of you, you know, within 10 feet of you or so. It was – my friends said they’ve never seen anything like it in their lives. And it was the most amazing weekend. But we’ve just been strengthening those friendship bonds, and it brought so much joy to everyone.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, I think when it’s all said and done and you look back on your life – at where were the really choice moments. It’s friends and family and things like that. And I have been to that YMCA camp several times to speak there. And it’s just an amazing place. When I first got married, we developed a big acreage up on the lake northeast of here, kind of the foothills of the Ozark Mountains. And the Oklahoma Wildlife Department decided they transplanted a male and female elk, and they were going to see if they could survive there, because there’s huge acreages out there around the lake and everything. Well, we didn’t know this. Well, somebody in their infinite wisdom, some guy shot the male. So now we have this widowed elk down there. Well, Crystal’s out down in our field, and there’s berry patches there, and she’s picking some berries. She comes around a corner, and wow, she said, I thought it was a horse or a camel.
SPEAKER 07 :
They’re like a horse. You’re right. Some of them are as big as a horse.
SPEAKER 03 :
Because the female doesn’t have the horns, exactly. And she said, I didn’t know what to do. And so, you know, and she backed out. But from then on, she kind of got familiar with it. She named her Molly, and Molly would hang around. And, you know, I think they coexisted there for a while. And Crystal actually called the wildlife department and said, we’ve got this elk here. And they said, would you like us to remove it? And they said, no, why don’t you send a mail? And, I mean, she’s here all by herself. And they said, well, people just shoot them. And so anyway, but magnificent animal. And, yeah, and just amazing. You know, it’s those shared experiences with friends and family that are just really priceless, amazing stuff.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yes, priceless is a great way to put it. Oh, and we went to the Stanley Hotel, you know, where the Shining. Jack Nicholson, yeah. Yeah, Mr. King wrote. I guess he got the idea for the Shining there. A lot of people think that they filmed it there, which they didn’t. It was on a sound stage and then also in Oregon. Like Mount Hood or something. But he was in a room where he had a nightmare, apparently. And that’s where he came up with the idea for the book. And you can see when you’re up there, it really does. You do believe that he would come up with the idea for that movie, that book when you’re up there.
SPEAKER 03 :
It’s a fabulous old hotel. I did a convention there, and I’ll never forget. You know, when I speak, the first four minutes, whether it’s a corporate event or in an arena or whatever, the first four minutes are just canned. I mean, it’s like doing the Pledge of Allegiance for me. It’s all the same. And I was at the Stanley Hotel, and I realized that morning, I was up there thinking, my timing’s off. Something’s weird today. You know, what is this? And I kept doing it, and then I realized, you know, I usually get all the way to the end of that statement and then take a breath and start, but they don’t have enough air up there. I mean, whoever’s in charge. Oh, that’s what my friend said, too. You need to get some more oxygen up there. And, of course, you’re used to it because you’re up there. But the Olympic Training Center is in Colorado Springs, and I had been up there for training. And even as a young guy, boy, you get used to it. I mean, wow, there’s not enough air up here. But the theory is if you can compete here, you can compete anywhere in the world. And so they do that. Right, right, right.
SPEAKER 07 :
Oh, my goodness. All right. Well, I just thought you’d get a kick out of that story. We are talking about Jim’s Winner’s Wisdom column this week. It’s Wishes and Reality. So what are you teaching us this week?
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, this comes out of, you know, I have 10 million books in print all around the world, and I put my contact in all of those books, 60 different titles. So I hear from many, many people daily. And I remember talking to a woman not long ago, and she said, I just don’t know what to do next in my life. And I said, okay, if you could do anything you wanted to do, what would you do? And she said, well, I have no idea. And I said, well, you need to get an idea. I mean, the whole world, it’s a smorgasbord. You do, hey, let’s assume time and money and circumstance, nothing was an object. What would you do? She said, well, it is an object. I said, no, you don’t get the how are you going to do it mixed up in the what are you going to do phase. Or you’ll never do anything bigger than you are right now. And that’s a huge mistake that so many people make is, well, what do you want to do next? Well, I don’t know because I don’t have this and I don’t have that and I don’t have that. And the next thing you know, they’ve talked themselves into this little tiny box of, And, you know, so learning how to embrace all the possibilities, it’s not something we need to learn. It’s something we need to relearn. Because this woman I’m talking to, if instead of her I was talking to the five-year-old version of her when she was in kindergarten, and I said, what do you want to do? Well, I want to be an astronaut, and then I think I might be president, and I want to be a fireman. I want to do all that. You know, and everything’s possible when you’re a kid. And there are no barriers. There’s no nothing. And then over time, we let people shrink our world for us. And, you know, I am grateful I didn’t know what I was getting into. I mean, I started narrative television to make TV accessible for blind people. And, you know, and only years later when I understood, wow, that was a big undertaking, and I didn’t know it, you know. I didn’t know what it was really going to do. But, you know, it was such a… an undertaking, but you don’t know, so ignorance becomes your friend. And then, you know, when one of our movies got won the best picture at a film festival, you know, the guy was telling me, you know, wow, it’s so amazing because only one in a thousand books becomes a bestseller, and only one in a thousand bestsellers becomes a movie. So a thousand times a thousand is a million. So it’s a one in a million shot. And I thought, well, it’s happened nine times for me. I mean, I didn’t know that. And I’m glad I didn’t know that. I mean, you just, you know, you need to know what to take the first step. So the point here is that when you think of your life and the possibilities, you’ve really got to get down to, if I could do anything I wanted to do, what would it be? And then figure out how to do that. Don’t get the two involved. I mean, decide what you want to do, close that door, burn that bridge, and now that we’ve decided to do this, I wonder how you do that thing. And that’s what becomes really powerful, is when you can get beyond where you are. Angie, you’re just circled in the same block. You’re just doing the things that you know how to do. And the world is so much bigger than what you or I know how to do.
SPEAKER 07 :
Absolutely. But I think a lot of us do like wander in a circle at some points in our lives, just like not, you know, you know, it was a pretty big dream you had, you know, to come up with the narrative television network and really something that was before its time. You know, I mean, you have to be the first one to do something and, you know, really cutting edge and really opened a whole new world to blind people up, you know. vision impaired even you know just not being able to clearly see what they’re watching and I think though a lot of us just wander in circles and also I think fear is a huge dream killer well you’re right but it was before its time but I actually quoted Victor Hugo in today’s column and
SPEAKER 03 :
And he said, nothing is so powerful as an idea whose time has come. I mean, it’s kind of like when the student is ready, the teacher arrives. Well, when you and I are ready, the inspiration arrives. But so many people, like we’ve talked about, they want all the lights to be green before they’ll leave the house. And they’ve got to have all the questions answered. But it doesn’t work like that. Give us this day our daily bread. I mean, you get enough to move another day. And then you figure out, okay, where do I go from here and where do I go from here? And that’s the way amazing things are done. But I just, this process, I call it deconstruction. I do with corporate CEOs and creative people and where we get down, why do you do what you do? And it’s amazing how many people You know, they’ve been in a 20-year career. Why do you do this? Well, because of this. Why did you do that? Because of this. And then when you get right down to it, well, I was out of college, and they had a recruiting thing on campus, and there was a table over there and a table over here, and my friends all went over there, so I went over there, and I got a job with them. And here we are 20 years later, and they built their world around this random thing that happened to them. And I’m not saying it was a bad choice. What I’m saying is, Could you consider maybe some other possibilities? And what else could you do? What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail and everything was an option? And then once you decide that, then figure out, how am I going to do this thing? And that’s when it becomes powerful.
SPEAKER 07 :
I’d say that again.
SPEAKER 03 :
What would you do if you knew – And there were no obstacles. Time, money, circumstances were not an obstacle. You could do anything you want to do. What would you do? And I just had a young lady in my office. She was looking for a job, and she said, I’ve always been in sales. I want to do that. And I asked her that very question. What would you do if you could do anything? Well, but I’ve always been in sales. I said, I didn’t ask what you’ve always done. If you could do anything, magic lamp right over here. I actually have one we used in the movie, The Lamp. I said, here’s your magic lamp. If you could do anything you wanted to do, what would it be? She said, well, I’d like to run a nonprofit. I said, well, why don’t you? She said, well, I’ve never done it before. I said, nobody’s ever done anything before they did it. If you think you have experience in sales… It’s not that much different than running a nonprofit. You’re going to go out to individuals and corporations and foundations, and you’re going to sell them on this solution you have to some problem in the community represented by your nonprofit. And she left here 20 minutes later. you know, going to go find out how to start a nonprofit. Wow.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, you sure gave us a lot to think about today, Jim. Jim Stovall dot com. I’ll have to get that movie or your book, The Lamp. Thank you, my friend. Thank you. Be well.
SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 04 :
Evergreen is tuned to the mighty 670 KLT Denver.
SPEAKER 07 :
well if you are just joining us this is angie austin with the good news you know we all know that taking the psat the sat all of those t’s is a rite of passage for millions of high school students across the country each october i have three kids in that age range and it connects them to so many opportunities after high school and it also really gets them into a few schools like my kids had to retake it because you have to maybe reach a certain threshold to get in But it’s also beyond nerve wracking to take these tests, especially for one of my kids who has ADHD. So we really went through the ringer with this. Well, joining us is an expert on all things SAT, et cetera. Priscilla Rodriguez, senior VP with College Readiness Assessments. Welcome, Priscilla. Hi, thank you so much for having me. You are welcome. So first of all, let’s just kind of give the basics. So people hear all these letters thrown around. What is the PSAT and the NMSQT, and what’s the difference between the PSAT and the SAT, and why are they important? So let’s just get the basics first of all.
SPEAKER 05 :
Sure, yeah, I appreciate that question. So we’re talking at a really important time of the year for high school students because throughout the month of October – millions of 10th and 11th grade students in schools across the country are going to take a test called the PSAT NMSQT. One test, just about two hours long, and what all those letters stand for is Preliminary SAT National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. There’s a lot of opportunity and information that comes from this test. So I’m excited to talk about that. But you mentioned the SAT as well. So one place to start is to share that the PSAT NMSQT, again, 10th or 11th grade, October every year, is great practice and preparation for the SAT that comes a little later in high school. The tests are the same structure, two sections, same skills, same kinds of questions, same timing. It’s really a lower stakes, lower stress opportunity to get comfortable and familiar with what’s going to be on the SAT.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, I would agree with you because it maybe takes a little bit of the stress away or their expectations are, you know, in place. Even if it’s difficult for them, they know what to expect. And they also have to know, you know, how they have to sit for a while. And some kids get accommodations. I know my daughter got like little breaks, I think, in between or could have a snack or something. And I think she might have gotten a little bit of extra time as well. So parents also need to look into if their kid has like a 504 plan or, you know, some kind of a learning plan in place at school to talk with their advisor to see if there’s anything that they can give them for accommodations. Because I think a lot of parents, I wasn’t aware of that initially. And it can help, especially with kids that are freaked out by time limits. Because my daughter said prior to getting her accommodations, she would stare at the clock all the time, you know, and keep looking at the clock. Or every person that got up and finished, it would freak her out. And sometimes they’ll allow you to take it and tell me if I’m wrong here in a different setting, maybe not in a room with all of the kids.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, everything you said is right, and I appreciate you sharing your personal experience with that. That’s exactly right. So for students who have educational plans, like you mentioned, 504 plans, some other ones are called IEPs, College Board, we’re the organization that runs the PSATs and SATs. We work together with schools and parents to make sure that students who have those kinds of needs and those kinds of plans get the accommodations they need. That can include extra time, Additional breaks or you’re right, taking it in a separate room where they won’t be distracted by students taking it under the standard timing who may stand up and leave early, as you mentioned. So that’s a real commitment we have as a nonprofit to making sure that students who get those kinds of supports during their regular schooling can also get them with us.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, and it’s wonderful. It does make a difference. I’m so glad that you do that. And it can make the difference between a kid that has a learning situation, learning difference, getting into college or not. Because like back in the old days, I know with my mother, for instance, she had… ADHD and she was dyslexic, they may not have even been able to go to college because people didn’t understand that they learned differently, that they were as intelligent, but that they maybe needed a different setting or more time. So that shouldn’t keep you from going to a university. So I’m so impressed by what you and others have done in the learning arena to accommodate kids who have a different manner of learning.
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, we’ve come a long way in recognizing that. Yeah, there’s lots of ways to learn and process information. And You know, the SAT is the same for everyone. It is NPSAT. They’re testing foundational reading, writing, and math skills, the same skills that students are being taught and tested on in their high school. So it’s the same for everyone, but you’re right. I think we’ve kind of collectively come a long way in understanding that people learn and process in different ways. And so, again, we make that commitment to partner with schools and families regularly. to support their students so they can show what they’ve learned in reading, writing, and math.
SPEAKER 07 :
Yeah, there’s no shame in that game. The kids should not be ashamed of that, of those accommodations. Now, I want to get into what the scores mean, but first, I’m going to ask you, the thing that perplexes me the most and i think that my kids have had the most difficult time with i’ve got a junior this year so she’ll be taking that psat soon how to prepare how do they prepare because i’ve heard so many stories about kids doing prep where they have greatly increased their scores and none of my kids did that let’s just be but but i’m not saying that this this one the junior can’t so what what can they do to help better their scores or prepare oh it’s a great question um
SPEAKER 05 :
So we, again, at College Board, as a nonprofit, we’re really committed to making sure that every student who wants to practice and prepare is able to do that with world-class tools for free. Money should not be a barrier. You mentioned your kids. I’ll share, when I was in high school, my family didn’t have the resources to pay anybody to tutor me or prepare me for a test. So I’m so proud of what we’ve done at College Board to kind of knock down those barriers. So let me share two things. They would serve as great preparation for the PSAT and MSQT and definitely for the SAT. So two things. The first is these tests are now given digitally. A lot of adults don’t know that. We took it on paper with little bubble sheets. Some of your kids might have too. But about two years ago, we transitioned these tests to digital. Kids take them on a laptop or a tablet. By the way, they love it. That feels a lot more natural to them than a bubble sheet. So They take these tests on an app called Blue Book. It’s free for students to download. And inside of Blue Book are full-length practice tests for the PSATs and the SATs. They look and work exactly the way the real test will. So not only can they get familiar with the questions and even the timing, right, how to manage your time, they can get used to the app itself. How do you flag a question you want to come back to? How can you use the little crosser outer so you can cross out answer options that you know are not right? How do you use the calculator that’s built in there? So it’s really important practice, whether they take the full test in two hours or they just kind of, like, hop around in the practice test and do some questions. The second of the two ways to practice is with our partners, another nonprofit called Khan Academy. A lot of students and parents are already familiar with them. They are the leaders in online teaching and tutoring for students, free, nonprofit. We partnered with them about 10 years ago to say, we write the test and you guys are the best at teaching students online. We should be able to come up with the best practice in the world for the SAT. And we did do that. So students can also go over to Khan Academy and do practice questions organized by skill area. And they have like tutorial videos and exercises. You can really actually learn these skills over on Khan Academy and then bring them over to our practice test to see how you’re doing.
SPEAKER 07 :
Wow. Okay. And so Khan Academy and then also give me the name of the app again.
SPEAKER 05 :
Blue Book. Blue Book is the student testing app. Free to download. It’s what they’re going to use on test day anyways. So it’s wise to download it in advance. Take some time in the practice test and get used to the app.
SPEAKER 07 :
That is so cool. All right. I wrote both of those down. That’s great information. Now, in terms of the score reports when they come out, so the PSAT and MSQT, when they do get their scores, what can they learn from those?
SPEAKER 05 :
A lot. So students get their scores and the score report a few weeks after test day. And on that they are going to get their score right they get a reading, writing score a math score, but just as importantly, they get an indication of how they did on the skills in each of those sections. So that can help illuminate the student, wow, I’ve really mastered these parts of reading, writing, or math, but I have some areas I either need to refresh or make sure I learn. I’ll use a geometry example because that was one I needed to work on when I was in high school. And so you would see that. You would see, okay, within math, geometry was the place I struggled the most. And again, that’s when you can go over to Khan Academy and do that more focused learning and practice. to use your time wisely, right, in the few areas where you have the most room for improvement. Besides the score and the sense of what skills are their strongest and their weakest, students are also going to get connected to a great resource we offer at College Board for free called Big Future. It’s bigfuture.org. That is a rich set of resources that enable students and the adults around them to do college work career and scholarship exploration. They can take how they scored, their interests, and start looking at colleges, jobs, and scholarships that could be a good fit for them.
SPEAKER 07 :
Wow, this is great info. Okay, and now in terms of, you know, I knew that my daughter that just started, she got a scholarship for volleyball, and her grades were okay, but they had a threshold where if you didn’t have a certain GPA, like let’s just throw out 3.5. Then you had to get a certain score on the SAT or ACT. Well, that freaked her out. Like literally when I told her that she had to take it again and get a certain score, she burst into tears and cried for an hour. Like it was like the most stressful thing in her life. And I tried to get every way around it. Like can we write recommendations? Can we explain your situation? Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, it turned out that no, that there was no ifs, ands, or buts. You had to get this certain score or she wouldn’t get her volleyball scholarship. So in terms of the PSAT and the NMSQT playing a part in college or career planning, it’s actually a lot bigger deal in career planning and college planning than I think some people think. Now, not every college is going to require a certain score. And there’s always the avenue of the kids could go to maybe a community college and work their way up to go into the school they want to buy with their grades, you know, by getting good grades and then gradually working their way into the school they want to go into. But if they want to start right out of high school in their dream college, can you talk about the part that the PSAT and the NMSQT play in their college and career planning?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, no, and I appreciate you sharing that story. I’m sorry that your daughter had that stressful experience. And I’ll say, you know, Every college is different in terms of what they require students to provide on an application and the different requirements they have to meet. But certainly the SAT can play a role, right, in helping students apply. So what I would say is I think the way to think about the PSAT and MSQT that students take in 10th and 11th grade, again, it’s not a judgment. It’s not a score that’s going to go to a college. It’s for you. Correct. To see where you are. what you’ve learned, where you can improve. Based on your score, you might already get some scholarship money through our partners at National Merit and other partners we have. So it can help you, but it’s not going to keep you from anything. It’s a moment to take a look at where you are, decide where you want to focus, and start exploring things that could be a good fit. Then the SAT comes along. And again, in a world where we are right now, which is that most colleges are test optional now. That happened really kind of as a result of the pandemic. And SAT score is generally something that can only help you at this point. So a lot has changed. And I think it’s great that students have options and different ways of showing what they’ve learned.
SPEAKER 07 :
And Priscilla, tell me if I’m wrong. Just one last question. Can’t you also keep even your SAT score, not the PSAT, but the SAT score, you can keep it to yourself until you decide to release it to a university. Is that correct? They can’t access it. Okay, perfect. Okay. That’s so important for people to know that if your kid takes it, don’t let them freak out thinking, yes, they choose if they’re going to release it to the university and it’s when they’re ready. So they could take it numerous times if they wanted to and then release it.
SPEAKER 05 :
That’s exactly right.
SPEAKER 07 :
Perfect. All right. Where can people go to get information besides the Blue Book Student Testing app that’s free to download and the Khan Academy where they can get help as well?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, so two places. The first is for information about the test, the PSAT and MSQT, what it is, what to expect, how it can help you. Students and families can go to psat.org. For that resource that has the scholarship search tool and career and college planning resources, that one is called bigfuture.org.
SPEAKER 07 :
Perfect. Thank you so much, Priscilla. Great information. You certainly helped me.
SPEAKER 05 :
No, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. You bet.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to The Good News with Angie Austin on AM670 KLTT.
Join Angie Austin and Jim Stovall as they dive into the importance of relationships over material success, inspired by the Harvard Happiness Study. Angie shares her inspiring journey of rekindling old friendships and the adventures that have enriched her life. Jim adds a touch of humor with his own elk encounter story, showcasing how cherished moments with loved ones make life truly fulfilling.
