PSAT changes will matter most to students who will be in 10th grade next year (2014-15)

Prep School Admissions
1

<p>In early March 2014 The College Board issued a press release regarding the changes that will be made to the SAT (effective 2016). Among other changes, the redesigned exam will have Evidence-Based Reading, will revert to the 1600 scale (from the current scale of 2400), and will eliminate the penalty for incorrect answers. </p>

<p>Here’s a link to the press release which announced the changes: <a href="https://www.collegeboard.org/releases/2014/expand-opportunity-redesign-sat"&gt;https://www.collegeboard.org/releases/2014/expand-opportunity-redesign-sat&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>There has been much less press focus on the related changes to the PSAT. The PSAT is used as an initial screen for the National Merit Scholarship competition. To enter the NMS competition, students must take the test in their junior year and achieve a high score. Most schools offer the PSAT to high school sophomores as a “practice” the year before the results will matter.</p>

<p>Here’s a link to the most recent Official Student Guide to the PSAT/NMSQT: <a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf"&gt;http://www.nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Students who will be in 10th grade during 2014-15 will take the current version of the PSAT in October 2014 but will take the new version of the PSAT in 2015 when they are juniors. Thus, the “practice” afforded by the 10th grade PSAT in October 2014 may not be predictive of the scores the students will achieve in 11th grade (when it matters for NMS qualification).</p>

2

<p>do you have more information?</p>

3

<p>What kind of information are you looking for? Everything PrepMom18 said is accurate. Many BS had their sophomore students took the PSAT this past week as practice-- but it was the old test and may not be predictive of their scores next year on the new test ( which is the one that will count, no matter how well or poorly they did this year). Schools know the test will change, but still felt sitting through a timed test was worth it. Some schools had their sophomores take the ACT as practice, rather than the PSAT, figuring that might be more predictive of future ACT scores, would help students know what to study for the ACT, and might even help with the new PSAT and SAT tests, since they are being rewritten to be more similar to the current ACT. That strategy (taking the ACT as a sophomore) seems to make a lot of sense-- but, from what I’ve heard, more schools stuck with the PSAT.</p>

4

<p>Below is a link to two sample math problems similar to what might appear on the new tests. 57 questions in 80 minutes. For some kids I can see time issues - more material to wade through than old test. </p>

<p><a href=“The SAT – SAT Suite | College Board”>https://www.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/focus_on_math_that_matters_most.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;