<p>My PSAT is next Wednesday. It is not a the real one ill be taking when I'm a junior but if do good on this test i will be invited to take a course which will help me even do better next year. I have to score at least a 170. I'm really nervous. I don't understand what people mean when saying that getting an answer wrong will hurt you but not answering the question will not? So all i have to do is answer a couple of questions that i am 100% sure about and i can just not answer the other questions? Please explain if you can and give me any tips that could help me. My goal is to become a National Merit Scholar.</p>
<p>Wow. Okay. First work on your grammar and spelling.</p>
<p>“It is not a the real one <em>ill</em> be taking when I’m a junior but if do <em>good</em> on this test <em>i</em> will be invited to take a course which will help me <em>even do better</em> next year.”</p>
<p>should be</p>
<p>“It is not the real one that I will be taking when I’m a junior, but if I do well on this test, then I will be invited to take a course which will help me do even better next year.”</p>
<p>But unless you’re amazing at math… I don’t see you making a 170.</p>
<p>Anyways… You get 1 point for every answer that is correct. You get 1/4 of a point knocked off for every answer that is incorrect. Nothing happens if you leave it blank.</p>
<p>Example:
What color is the sky?
A. Blue
B. Green
C. Orange
D. Red
E. Black</p>
<p>You answer blue: You get 1 point (1)
You answer B, C, D, or E you lose 1/4 point (-.25)
You don’t answer: You don’t get or lose anything. (0)</p>
<p>Obviously a score of 0 is better than a score of -.25</p>
<p>Alright thanks! Don’t worry about my grammer, I just type like this when I am on facebook and online forums. In school though I actually try to have good grammer</p>
<p>Yes, answer all the questions you think you will get correct. Not answering means you still get the question incorrect, but don’t lose the extra quarter of a point.</p>
<p>The best tip I can give you is to relax. If you stress during the test, it will affect your thinking in a negative manner.</p>
<p>If you want to achieve National Merit Scholar (score wise) this year, then you would have to be pretty lucky.</p>
<p>Note that if you can eliminate at least one answer, then you lose nothing by guessing.</p>
<p>With 4 choices, you have a 1/4 chance of guessing right. So on average you will gain 1 point and lose 3 quarter-points for every 4 guesses. This is an average gain of 1/16 point per guess.</p>
<p>If you eliminate 2 answers, your average gain becomes 1/6 point, and if you eliminate 3, 1/2 point.</p>
<p>Since pretty much every PSAT question has at least one throwaway answer that is blatantly wrong, you gain by guessing most of the time.</p>
<p>Best advice I can give you for getting National Merit: Don’t move to a state with a slightly higher cutoff like I did. :(</p>
<p>I live in the state of Texas and i don’t know the cutoff for this state. I’m only a sophomore right now so I can’t become a national merit scholar this year but if I do well on the PSAt this year I will be invited into a course that will help me do better next year. </p>
<p>Also is there some specific vocabulary I have to memorize?</p>
<p>^Direct Hits.</p>
<p>Also, even if you’re really bad, I don’t think 170 should be too much of a problem. I got 173 as a freshman with zero preparation (no Algebra 2) and no idea what to expect. Math shouldn’t be too hard if you’ve taken through Algebra 2. Critical Reading should be fine if you study Direct Hits and don’t read really slowly. For Writing just study idiomatic phrases and learn the 7(?) rules.</p>
<p>Here’s a fantastic tip that most people do not realize.</p>
<p>ALWAYS GUESS.</p>
<p>Suppose that you CAN’T ELIMINATE ANY ANSWERS. Then your expected value is 1-4*.25 = 0.</p>
<p>But that’s for RAW score only.
Remmember that your raw score is rounded up! This means your expected value is slightly higher.</p>
<p>Also, have this mentallity when you take the test: the right answer is right in front of you, and all you have to do is find it. That means that unlike school essay or free response tests, you need to use your skills of intuition and elimination to get the answer.</p>
<p>Start preparing for your junior PSAT.</p>
<p>By section, here’s the best preparation.
Critical Reading: READ! My suggestion is this: go to the library (often!) and check out at least one book from the classics/reading list section, one non-fiction book, and one book of your choice. Experiment with different subjects to make you comfortable. In addition, try reading a bit of the newspaper. This also helps you with the writing section as it a) gives you experience with Standard written english and b) will help you on the essay section on the actual SATs
Writing: Do practice books on this section, especially since it seems like you need some practice 
(no offense). There’s only a dozen or so actual rules, so memorize them!
Math: Do practice if you need it. If you do need it - do it without a calculator! It will really help you out as you’ll learn to be an efficient test taker.</p>
<p>So that’s it! PM me if you need anything else. Good luck!</p>
<p>~National Merit Semifinalist</p>
<p>I just heard that Collegeboard isn’t deducting points for wrong answers, so answer everything. This includes SAT, PSAT, and APs</p>
<p>I believe this is only true for AP exams.</p>
<p>^^</p>
<p>You heard wrong.</p>
<p>(slightly, anyway)</p>
<p>Euroazn, you are my hero. Everyone says that you shouldn’t guess if you don’t know the answer. I always try to show them mathematically that you should ALWAYS guess, but they never listen to me 
Thank you for being logical</p>
<p>lol - np, np.</p>
<p>It works mathematically, but it doesn’t work out that way in real life. </p>
<p>In order for guessing to benefit you, you have to make sure you only eliminate incorrect answers (or none at all) and guess randomly from the remaining ones. If you don’t make a completely random choice, then the whole mathematical calculation based on probability gets thrown out the window.</p>
<p>Of course, there are some cases where it would be idiotic to not guess. But randomly guessing on questions you don’t know the answer to almost always hurts you more than it would benefit you.</p>
<p>The irony is that even CB pushes this strategy. </p>
<p>Or maybe Euroazn and cucumber are just human random number generators and this doesn’t apply to them Or I just suck at guessing randomly since I always score worse when I do…</p>
<p>^I was specifically instructed by Maple to somehow catch you and make you stay on HSL if you ever came back.</p>
<p>idk how</p>
<p>^Pokeball!</p>
<p>EDIT: Wait, nevermind. That was for Invoyable.</p>
<p>Maybe a pickup line will work:</p>
<p>**** you(?)</p>
<p>haha.<em>holds up screw</em></p>
<p>Wanna screw?</p>
<p>I like that one better.</p>