<p>199 to 216, not that much D:</p>
<p>209 to 224
just focused more and made sure i made no careless mistakes on math, getting an 80, and checked my answers if i had time</p>
<p>I improved by a fairly large margin from a 164 to 204. It can be done. I think the three biggest reasons for the improvement are:
[ul]
[<em>]Direct Hits - this helped me do well on the sentence completions and boosted my critical reading score
[</em>]Taking another math class, having another year of reading, and another year of school also helped.
[li]Practice. This was the biggest reason for my improvement. Not just taking practice tests, but also going back over the problems I got wrong and finding out why I got them wrong.</p>[/li]
<p>[/ul]</p>
<p>169 to 201</p>
<p>hey, i got a 173 on my psat this year and i’m wondering where i can get the Collegeboard PSAT tests. I really want and hope to get about a 220 next year and it would be really helpful if someone can give me advice on how to study and how i can get my hands on the collegeboard psat tests.</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>^Unfortunately, CB no longer sells previous PSAT’s.</p>
<p>Out of curiosity… I averaged and took the standard deviation of everyone that posted 10th->11th grade scores in this thread.</p>
<p>Average 10th grade score:
189.57</p>
<p>Average 11th grade score:
216.5</p>
<p>Average difference: 26.93</p>
<p>Standard deviation of 10th grade: 24.14</p>
<p>11th: 14.02</p>
<p>St. Deviation of the difference (11th-10th): 18.33</p>
<p>172 -> 212</p>
<p>A LOT:
sophomore - 210
junior - 239</p>
<p>I got a 213 last year (sophomore year) and I got a 208 this year (hopefully NV’s cutoff stays the same or decreases!!), but that may have been due to the headache I had during testing :/. Scores generally go up as you are prepared for it and have already seen what it’ll be like.</p>
<p>I went from a 181 to a 204</p>
<p>for me:
sophomore: 213
junior: 229
actual: 2350
all of this was without studying, so if you want to get your scores up considerably, just study a bit, though after a year your scores will naturally go up.</p>
<p>I went from 181 to 218. No biggie</p>
<p>“On average, students taking the PSAT/NMSQT as sophomores and again as juniors have junior year PSAT/NMSQT scores that are 3.3 points higher in critical reading, 4.0 points higher in math, and 3.3 points higher in writing skills. However, these are averages: some students earn scores in their junior year that are significantly higher; others receive lower scores.”</p>
<p><a href=“http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/understanding-psat-nmsqt-scores.pdf[/url]”>http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/understanding-psat-nmsqt-scores.pdf</a></p>
<p>I’m only a sophomore, but I had a 36 point increase between freshman and sophomore year. 173 to 209. </p>
<p>I started doing the SAT QoTD, and took maybe 3 practice SATs over the course of the year, just to see how I was doing. I still need to go over those… I got Direct Hits vol. I and II and learned maybe 1/4 of the words, and then started cramming. The night before the PSAT, I spent around 2 hours trying to cram the rest of the DH words and some Spark Notes grammar rules. </p>
<p>If you’re just now taking Algebra 2, that was another thing that helped a lot.</p>
<p>I can’t speak for everyone here, but I got a 224 as a sophomore and a 231 this year–not a huge jump, but that was probably because my scores were already fairly high. Three days until January SAT results, though, so we’ll see what happens.</p>
<p>@OP: IIRC, I had similar scores my sophomore year (186), though I did go in cold. I put in some practice after that, and caught a few lucky breaks on this year’s test to get a 240.</p>
<p>I got a 229 sophomore year and a 230 junior year, so I didn’t jump very much.</p>
<p>Older son went from 227 to 230 while younger son went from 180 to 206. I think if your scores are already high there is less likely to be much change. For younger son, he learned a lot of math that was on the PSAT in the meantime. (Went up 9, he also went up 7 in Writing.) Older son went up 3 in writing, down 6 in math (from a perfect score) and then up 6 in writing (for a perfect score in writing). Amusingly on the SAT he didn’t get an 800 in either math (his strength) or writing (definitely his weakness) instead he got an 800 twice in critical reading. Which all leads me to wonder what the SAT and PSAT really test. He’s a computer nerd through and through, but he reads a lot and fast (all sci-fi and fantasy.) BTW he didn’t even break 700 in writing on the SAT.</p>
<p>Neither of my kids did any studying for either PSAT other than taking the little practice test that they send you.</p>
<p>192 to 220</p>
<p>2009 - Sophomore: 189 (68 CR, 58 M, 63 W)
2010 - Junior: 212 (76 CR, 61 M, 75 W)</p>
<p>As everyone else has said, just having the advantage of growing older really helps to up your PSAT score. Take a practice test if you want to get reacquainted with the test format after a year. </p>
<p>And take the diagnostic results with a grain of salt. I got a 195 according to my practice test but ended up scoring a 212 in real life. Oh, and like everyone else, I didn’t study. Personally, I believe that stressing out for standardized tests actually lowers your score, so be realistic but not obsessive.</p>
<p>Don’t stress out, but know your weak areas. In my case, I didn’t improve enough in math, so I’m on the edge for the NMSC cutoff in my state…</p>