<p>Hi Everyone,
I am a soon-to-be senior in high school and will be taking the SAT in October for the first time. In your experience, did you score better on the actual SAT than on the PSAT.? What was your experience?</p>
<p>As a point of reference, I got a 1930 on the PSAT and have strong essay-writing skills (tutor college-level English).</p>
<p>Personally, I did better on the PSAT by quite a bit (237 vs. 2290). But that was primarily because of my weak essay and a stupid mistake I made in the Math section. Generally, however, people seem to do better on the SAT, since the curve is less harsh.</p>
<p>I would say people do better because they study harder.I have no Psat experience though.</p>
<p>I didn’t study and I did a lot better (not as good as you though) on the SAT. 151 PSAT vs 1810 without extensive studying. I know by studying I could break 2000, so I would say you can do better with no studying! :)</p>
<p>Most people do end up scoring better on the SAT than the PSAT, but that doesn’t mean that it is easier. In fact, I would argue that because it is a shorter test with only one Writing section and no essay, the PSAT is actually easier. </p>
<p>However, the reason most people end up doing better on the SAT is because they have the opportunity to take the test multiple times whereas there is only one opportunity (that counts) for the PSAT. As a result, students have more chances to improve their score, thereby leading to better results. Not only that, but the PSAT is taken in October of junior year. Many students become a lot more serious about test prep towards mid-junior year and end up finishing their standardized testing around the end of junior year or beginning of senior year. Just from knowledge gains, students will do better after about a year has elapsed.</p>
<p>So @wannabeivy3 you should expect to do better on the SAT when you take it during early senior year.</p>
<p>For any given student, the sample size of tests taken is too small to draw any conclusion about relative difficulty. Anyone can have a good or bad day.</p>
<p>My son took both tests in the Fall of junior year and scored 220 points higher on the SAT than the PSAT*10, even though both tests were taken with the same amount of prep. Two brain farts on the Writing section cost him 8 points on the PSAT when he almost never gets a question wrong in practice. He ran into a long reading passage that really tripped him up as well, and his Reading score ended up 10+ points lower than he expected.</p>
<p>However, I don’t think he would say the PSAT was harder than the SAT. There is a very harsh curve at the top of the scoring range on the PSAT, and he had a relatively bad day. </p>
<p>PSAT: 203
SAT: 2250</p>
<p>Strangely enough I did better on the SAT with less studying than for the PSAT. I think my score naturally rose because I was taking difficult courses (like AP Lit, which probably boosted my CR skills)</p>
<p>PSAT sophomore: 18x
PSAT junior: 19x
SAT junior 1: 2040
SAT junior 2: 2270</p>
<p>I did 0 studying for the PSAT, tutoring for first SAT, and 0 prep for second SAT… so, I think it has a lot to do with studying, but I thought the PSAT was harder.</p>
<p>I found the SAT easier than the PSAT but that was just me. Funny enough, I took my first SAT (2120) before the PSAT, so it may just have been I was overconfident the second time around. I think my PSAT score was around the 200s. Also, my final SAT score was much better than the PSATs just because of more practice. Definitely study for the PSAT though. I wish I did, because the NMF can be really helpful for scholarship purposes.</p>
SAT is 1000 times easier!
In 10th grade I got 206 (54,80,72) PSAT and started to study reading diligently for 11th grade. On the practice test I got 219, and practice SATs were around the same.
However 11th grade PSAT reading was insanely HARD. I only got 52,80,71 for a score of 203. This is commended but not semifinalist. I averaged at least 650 reading on SAT practice tests. I am one of the top 5 out of 800 in my class by GPA, and have numerous state science fair awards and am in varsity jazz band as lead trombone. This stupid test just ruined any chance of a top college. 
I did do decent on SAT (690 R, 800 M, 760 W with 12 essay) for 2250 just six weeks later and will retake. However, I do not know if that will make up for dismal PSAT. The average of the two only falls at 2140 which is a terrible score for ivies.
It seems that on average a good 12 per grade receive semifinalist in my school, but every year there is somebody very smart and who studies who does not make it (my friend, similar stats, got 198). It seems like that person is me this year.
Screw the PSATs.
By the way, if you have not already realised, I am a math whiz and plan to study math/physics in college (I’m a physics whiz too), albeit probably only in a 2nd tier college due to PSAT.
I think the difficulty of the questions is about the same, but the PSAT has a harsher curve, so scores tend to be lower (my PSAT score was 70 pts lower than my SAT)
I did better on the PSAT than the SAT. (211 vs 1950->2030) But then again, I worked probably 8-9 practice tests in the 2 weeks preceding the exam date for the PSAT. I worked maybe 3 tests in the last 3 days prior to my first SAT right after finishing a semester of dual enrollment, and had studied very little from the time I had taken the PSAT, except for about a week after a short SAT class (that I actually only went to half of because an encampment I wanted to do started the second day.) My first SAT was in May, and I got a 1950. I kind of wanted to get over 2000 plus I didn’t really know what the cutoff for NMF was. Only when I became a NMSF in September and started looking for more info on that did I realize I needed a 1960, and although my score without the essay (NMSC doesn’t grade the essay, just the MC score x 10) was 2000, I retook in Nov. anyway to try to bump it up some more. I also wanted a higher math score, so I was focusing on working math sections from time to time. Well, I got a 2030, and I did go up in math, a whopping 10 points (darn that curve!), but I jumped 50 points in CR and 20 in Writing (got a point higher on my essay.)
So, I think I did better on the PSAT because it was a bit easier on the Writing section (I got a 78 on that, which I was never able to replicate on the SAT, even just the MC score) and because I was really better prepared than I was for either of my SATs. I’m good though, because I made my state NM cutoff by 1 point and am over 1960, so I’m on to NMF.
I personally thought the SAT was quite easier than the PSAT. The math section on the SAT and critical reading on the SAT is easier than PSAT and the writing section is about the same. I had about a 200 point score difference between PSAT and SAT.
The SAT, however, is filled with 10 sections while the PSAT only has 6 sections without an essay. Usually people get overwhelmed by the SAT during the final sections and assume that it’s harder. If you’re capable of taking a long test with consistency on all sections, you would definitely find the SAT is be much easier.