Every year, the College Board in the U.S. tests high school juniors (11th graders, one more year before graduating from high school) using the so called PSAT/NMSQT, or Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
The results for 2009 PSAT administered on Oct. 17, 2009 came out a few days ago.
The national mean scores for juniors who took the 2009 PSAT are:
Critical Reading 47.0
Mathematics 48.3
Writing Skills 45.9
How did Punahou (the high school Obama graduated from) do this year?
Critical Reading 57.2
Mathematics 62.2
Writing Skills 56.0
p.s. Score ranges are from 20 to 80. So, 50 is "the middle score." If a young man attends Punahou, even if he plays video games every day and many do, he still has a good chance of beating the national average!