Why the PSAT Matters More Than You Think – And How to Prepare

PSAT Prep

To be honest, my first time hearing about the PSAT in high school was the day I took it. I wasn’t clear on whether it was another mandatory state test, a form of IQ test, or something else entirely. No one explained what it was, what it measured, or what it was for, so I assumed it didn’t really matter and would have no bearing on my academic career.

That was true to an extent, but this cannot be overstated: the PSAT matters. (As does the PreACT.) Granted, not as much as the SAT or ACT, but it opens up opportunities for students if they understand its purpose and how to do well on it. 

 

What is the PSAT?

The PSAT’s full name is the Preliminary SAT, and, as indicated by its full name, it is an introduction to standardized testing created by College Board, the same non-profit that develops the SAT and AP Exams. For the most part, the PSAT is an “easier” version of the SAT. The exam is taken over the course of two hours and 14 minutes and consists of 98 questions over two sections: 1) Reading and Writing and 2) Math. If you have a student who recently completed the new Digital SAT, those sections and the testing time should sound familiar—they’re identical. 

While the PSAT can be taken digitally, most students will take the test in person on a day in October that has been chosen by their high school or the school district. One of the key differences between the PSAT and SAT is that the traditional SAT takes 3 hours and consists of 154 questions. The tests are also scored similarly but not identically. Both are determined by combining a student’s section scores, but SAT scores range from 400 to 1600 while the PSAT goes from 320 to 1520. 

All of this is to say that while the PSAT is its own test, taking it is the closest a student can come to taking the SAT outside of a real test date

 

Why the PSAT Matters

It’s important to stress from the start that the PSAT isn’t used by admissions officials in the same way an SAT or ACT score is. It is not used to make admissions decisions, but that doesn’t mean it can’t impact a student’s time in college.   

There are several versions of the PSAT that a high school can offer, but one is particularly significant: the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test or PSAT/NMSQT. Getting a high score on the PSAT in October of junior year is a student’s first step towards becoming a National Merit Semi-Finalist or Finalist. Finalists receive a one-time $2,500 scholarship to the university of their choosing. While that won’t put much of a dent in the total cost of college, it isn’t the scholarship itself that matters. Many public universities across the U.S. offer full-ride or full-tuition scholarships for in-state and out-of-state National Merit Finalists. Many companies and corporations also offer some form of scholarship for finalists and semi-finalists if their parent is an employee of the company—and many of these scholarships, unlike the National Merit Scholarship, are given every year of a student’s college career. 

Outside of the opportunity for a full-ride scholarship, as mentioned above, the PSAT is a useful learning experience for students because it is the closest experience they will have to taking the SAT before the real thing. While mock exams are a crucial part of improving SAT and ACT test scores, it’s difficult to fully recreate the experience (and pressures) of an official proctored standardized test in a timed practice exam. For many juniors, this will be their first experience with this kind of testing environment (unless they completed an AP Exam at the end of their sophomore year). Your student’s test score also provides an early glimpse at how they might do on the traditional SAT or dSAT, helping them (and you) create a testing plan to perform at their highest potential on the real test day.  

 

How to Prepare for the PSAT

For students, taking the time to review math fundamentals, grammar basics, and practice reading comprehension questions is crucial to performing as well as possible on the PSAT. (The test is intended to assess all of the skills your student has learned in high school up to that point, so freshmen geometry principles will almost certainly appear on the test.) Ultimately, preparing for the PSAT looks a lot like building the foundational skills needed to do well on the SAT—and the same is true for the PreACT. Like all standardized tests, your student will be able to do their best when they understand the format of the exam (and its various quirks). The Enrichery has carefully designed a Pre-Test Prep program to help 9th and 10th graders get a head start on test prep. This is a great way to get a refresher on fundamentals, and it gives students a great foundation for the PSAT. An added bonus – our Pre-Test Prep students also typically see a boost in their class grades!

 

While it’s a comparatively low-stakes test, the PSAT matters, and preparing for it does, too. If you want to begin building the skills needed to succeed on the PSAT (and SAT), contact us today to schedule a session!