If I take the PSAT and SAT without additional studying between the two days I take them, will my SAT score likely be higher than PSAT score? A few of my friends had a higher SAT score than PSAT even though they took the SAT just a week later, so I’m curious.
Not necessarily. My dd got a 1470 on the PSAT she took in October, (750 verbal), then studied math only for two months and got a 1490 on SAT in Dec (dropped to 690 verbal). She improved on math because she studied, but dropped 60 points in verbal due to the writing curve.
According to its Understanding Scores document, College Board designed the PSAT and SAT so that, in theory, your scores would be the same if taken on the same day, yet show “growth” in between the fall junior year PSAT and an SAT taken at a much later date such as spring of junior year or fall of senior year. However, the harsher scoring scales of late make for a lot more variability at the top end of the scale, i.e. PSAT may be less predictive than College Board intended.