PSAT

Every year the 11^th graders that I am tutoring face the prospect of having to take the PSAT. For those who don’t know, the PSAT is essentially a slightly shortened version of the SAT. The questions are basically the same, but there are fewer of them and the overall structure of the test is a little different from that of the SAT (including the fact that there is no essay on the PSAT).

Nevertheless, if a student is preparing for the SAT and doing practice SAT questions, they are essentially preparing themselves for PSAT questions as well. So why prepare specifically for the PSAT then? Well, in most cases you shouldn’t. The PSAT really doesn’t count for anything unless you score very, very high on the test (top 1%). If you are in that group you will likely qualify for a National Merit Scholarship, which is extremely prestigious and looks very, very good on your college application (to say nothing of the fact that, hey, it’s a scholarship!). But for the rest of the test takers the PSAT will be essentially meaningless and schools will never see the scores.

The trouble with the PSAT that is coming in October of 2015 is that it will be in the same format as the new version of the SAT that is set to debut in March of 2016. This presents a bit of a dilemma. First of all, if you plan to try to stick with the old version of the SAT and test before March of 2016 (see my post about that for more information) then you probably don’t want to confuse yourself with the new format of SAT so in that case I would definitely not prepare for the PSAT (since it will reflect the format of the new version of the SAT).

If, however, you do plan to take the new version of the SAT then preparing specifically for the 2015 PSAT might have merit (again if you think you will score very high on the test). The problem even with this scenario is that there will not be a lot of prep material for the new version of the test. There will be SAT materials out and preparing with those will indirectly prepare you for the PSAT since the questions will be very similar. But in the past, I would have students actually take practice PSAT’s so that they could get used to the format and work on proper time management.   This will be difficult to do for the October 2015 test. At best College Board will release a practice PSAT that will reflect the new version to be administered in October 2015 (again probably distributed at the schools) so that people who want to take a practice PSAT would be able to do so, but as far as I know that is not guaranteed. So unfortunately the best a person will be able to do for sure is practice on released SAT questions (there will be a new version of the SAT Official Guide out this Summer) and perhaps rely on some third party sources for mock PSAT’s, if they become available this Summer or early Fall.

This year really complicates a lot in the world of SAT prep, but since most people don’t need to worry about studying for the PSAT, the bigger question that needs to be answered (and the one that would determine what to do about the PSAT anyway) is which test do you want to take – the current version or the new version of the SAT? To repeat, for those wanting to stick with the old version of the test, I would recommend not worrying at all about the PSAT. For those electing to take the new version, only those who are likely to score very high on the PSAT would be well served to consider preparing for it (so that is a very low percentage of the people) and those who do choose to prepare will probably have to do it somewhat indirectly by using the new SAT question that will be released in the coming months and maybe some third party practice PSAT’s if they become available. Unfortunately the next couple of year will be a difficult period of transition for students who have to deal with the SAT. Poor class of 2017!!!