<p>I've taken a few practice PSAT tests because i want to get the national merit scholarship and prepare for the real SAT. I'm satisfied with my reading and writing sections just the math bugs me...I've been scoring in the 400s YIKES i know. I really think i can get into the 650s at least if i work at it. I have the Kaplan and Barron's Math workbook and i have the blue book. I don't want to take the tests in the blue book yet because i want to save those for when i'm preparing for the actual sat you know? I've heard the baron's one has a lot of errors and is insanely hard so i might take it back. I'm pretty good at math i'm in precalculus and i know how to do basic algebra but when it comes to the SAT style questions i get stumped. Oh and i also suck at geometry i think that's what's been bringing my score down too. I don't want the only reason for me not scoring in the 2000+ range because of math. Any advice?</p>
<p>Usually SAT algebra questions like to trick you by putting strange function notation, which turns out to be fairly simple in the end. For example,</p>
<p>The function a&b&c is given by a&b&c = (a^b) + c. If x&2&3 = 2&3&x, what is the value of x?</p>
<p>At first it looks confusing but once you evaluate x&2&3, 2&3&x, it becomes a very easy problem.</p>
<p>Keep in mind that NMS is fairly competitive…you need a very good PSAT score, usually in the 210+ range. Then there are a lot of other things you need to do (submit an application with essays, rec letters, take SAT). I scored perfect 80/800 on PSAT/SAT math and missed out on NMS qualification (mostly because my reading/writing scores were low).</p>
<p>Same here too, I lack of full confidence in math and sometimes make careless mistake.
I used to practice SSAT upper level as reinforcement to boast my ego to conquer the defeat.</p>
<p>What is the gap in term of difficulty comparing SSAT upper level with PSAT?</p>