<p>Alright, so I took a practice PSAT and got the following:</p>
<p>CR: 65
M: 80
W: 55
Total: 200</p>
<p>I am going to be a junior next year so the National Merit Scholarship will be official. I was wondering if you guys can give me some tips and ways to study so i can get 225+ on the PSAT in October to become a National Merit Finalist.</p>
<p>1) Is it possible to increase my score by 20 points in 3 months?
2) How can I get 75+ on critical reading? What should I read? Classic novels or magazines/newspapers (examples?)? How many vocab words (roughly) do I need to memorize in order to score well on the CR section?
3) Writing!!! Arghh! I heard writing is the easiest to increase the score of and my 55 is extremely disappointing. How should I prepare to get 75+? Grammar books?
4) Math is my strong point so there is no need for suggestions.
Also, any suggestions for prep books? Are PSAT and SAT books essentially the same (just no essay) or are PSAT questions easier? Any links to great books on amazon would be helpful.</p>
<p>I’m in the same boat as you as well. For writing, I’m just working off of a writing book by Barrons. For CR, I’m memorizing the 1000 word list by Sparksnotes and i’m reading some books off of this list by the College Board: [101</a> Great Books](<a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>Stay Motivated in High School – BigFuture | College Board). I’m also reading more periodicals and newspapers like the Economist and the New York Times. Like the OP, math is my strong point so no need to worry too much about that. My advice would be to work off of any prep books in your library and try to get the new BB from Amazon and utilize all the practice tests in it: [Official</a> SAT Study Guide, 2nd Edition](<a href=“http://budurl.com/BlueBook2]Official”>http://budurl.com/BlueBook2). Hopefully this will for me to score well on the October PSAT and become a National Merit Finalist. Good luck to both of you.</p>