<p>hey i'm a soph and i just received my psat score, 165. i want to contend for the NMS next year, so i want to get in a score of 220+, and an SAT score of 2300+.</p>
<p>i thought the psat does not penalize for guessing, so i put down an answer for every question. What do you think my chances are if I study well? any tips? any psat success stories that can be shared?</p>
<p>I got a 160ish when I was a sophomore and a 195 when I was a junior. I didn't study at all. I'm not saying a 195 is a terrific score, just that that was a big jump, and it was natural. So, expect to get a jump in a year's worth of high school education and growing.</p>
<p>There aren't as many resources for the PSAT as the SAT, so what do you do? Exactly, study for the SAT. Of course, disregard the essay, but use the blue book to practice for the PSATs. Of course, you need a preliminary book to focus your efforts, so, I would suggest any Barron's book on the SAT or PSAT from which you can learn the basics. You don't have to buy another book, you can just rent it from the library, because really, you aren't using it for its practice tests, just its basic rules and tactics. Then comes the real point raising period. Take a few SAT sections, say two for each subject to better mimic the PSAT. Then, sit down and diagnose what your weaknesses are. If this means you make a little table and have check marks, then so be it, I did it. For math, you may have a table with one column for each question type like statistics, algebra, geometry. Then check off each type you got wrong. This way you can narrow your focus and efforts. For Cr, you may make columns like Sentence Completions, 1 blank, 2 blanks, or just each question type from the passages like, inference, vocab in text, reference, get as specific as you feel you should. Do the same for writing. Now once you have figured your weaknesses, work hard on those areas, really, really go for it. Keep doing this, and soon the number of mistakes and the breadth of your mistakes will go down. You're not shooting for a perfect 240, so give yourself some wiggle room. Keep doing this. And realize that in all this, the basic and most important theme is practice. Train yourself, really work hard on those mistakes, and soon enough you'll be acing sections.</p>
<p>Hope this helps :)</p>
<p>akahmed, would taking practice PSATs help? such as the ones in the PR cracking the PSAT?</p>
<p>Yes it will. But I can tell you, I never advise taking practice tests from companies other than collegeboard, even though Princeton Review is pretty close. I know CB doesn't have practice PSATs, but it has the Blue Book, which is essentially the same. The reason I advise so is because if you practice strictly with CB tests then you know exactly the types of questions and answers CB asks and expects and you develop a natural feel for the questions. For me, it came to a point such that I could tell what a nonCB answer would be, until I could narrow the answer choices to 1 or two. So yeah, the option is now yours.</p>