PSAT Prep

Pre-College Topics High School Life
1

<p>I'm a Junior, and I haven't really done any prep at all yet. I just did a test cold turkey today and I came out with a score of 206. </p>

<p>The only thing is that for some odd reason (it may have been the nature of the test I took) I did better in math than reading/writing, which is extremely weird because I've taken the SAT two times before (one from John Hopkins in 7th grade and once for free at the local library in the beginning of 10th grade) and both times I did better in reading/writing than in math, and I've always been stronger in English than Math in school as well. </p>

<p>Anyways, the National Merit cutoff for NY is usually around 218.
My mom wants me to take a prep course because she really wants me to get NMS, but I'm not sure if it would be worth so much money.<br>
What do you guys think, considering that I haven't even read through a prep book yet?</p>

2

<p>just get a prep book. don’t waste your money on a course.</p>

3

<p>I love my nm cutoff being so low…none of this “218” bs.</p>

<p>But yeah, just get a prep book.</p>

4

<p>i agree. remember: psat’s don’t play that important of a factor during admissions. they are mostly only good for scholarship money</p>

5

<p>^ what r u talking about? PSATs technically play no ‘role’ in admissions. Adcoms never know your PSAT score, all they see is what general category you fall under - Commended, Semifinalist, Finalist, Winner, from which they can determine your PSAT range. So thus it isnt the score that counts, but the award that you get from your PSAT.</p>

6

<p>^Exactly, which is why I love that a 210 (or so) can essentially be viewed the same as a 240 if the 210 qualifies for semi in your state.</p>

<p>If your state is a low cutoff state (not NY unfortunately for the op), there’s no reason to cram/study if you know you can make the minimum…</p>

7

<p>i didn’t know about this cutoff stuff.</p>

<p>it’s awesome! i could make the cutoff by 10 points or 50 points and it wouldn’t make a difference. cool…</p>

8

<p>well… not exactly. You live in NY, and the cutoff this year is probably somewhere around 220… Not much room for error… That’s a full 14 points higher than my state.</p>

9

<p>Stupid Maryland has a 221 cutoff score for NMS…I only need 7 more points!</p>

<p>Yeah, I’m definetely an English person according to my grades, but I got a 76 on Math! I thought it was a mistake at first…I’m sure my math teacher would have been just as surprised as I was :)</p>

10

<p>How do you find out the cutoffs for your state?</p>

11

<p>Well, first off I was told that I was a semi, and then I was told the cutoff.</p>

<p>But for the current work in progress that’s growing on cc for cutoffs by state, see here:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=385453&page=12[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=385453&page=12&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

12

<p>I googled it and came up with a CC thread in which the 05/04 cutoffs were listed</p>

13

<p>

</p>

<p>oh. bummer. so much for my joy…</p>

<p>i’ve still got a long time to prepare though.</p>

14

<p>yep yep! I am so glad I am done with the psat/sat/act… and that I no longer live in new york where I would have actually had to study to make the semi cutoff (instead of half-arsing it like I did).</p>

15

<p>what a lame monopoly.
i cannot wait until I can completely forget about standardized tests.
just buy a prep book.</p>