<p>Hello all! I'll try to summarize somewhat quickly.</p>
<p>This past October, I decided to take a PSAT as a sophomore just for the sake of extra experience and practice. These scores won't be on my record, but I thought it would be helpful to take the opportunity.</p>
<p>Turns out, I did pretty badly. That said, I didn't prepare at all for it, nor did I embrace it into my schedule. Instead, I sort of just went with the hits, which meant I only got 6 hours of sleep before the test.</p>
<p>So here's my scores. Laugh at me all you want, but I'd like to know how greatly I can expect my scores to change when I take the PSAT as a junior. Hopefully these score's don't imply that I'm going to do horribly on the real PSAT and SAT.</p>
<p>Critical Reading: 54 / 17 Wrong / 0 Omits
Let's see.. CR went pretty badly. I should have taken a little time to devise a strategy for taking each section, but I didn't, and it obviously shows.</p>
<p>Mathematics: 62 / 8 Wrong / 0 Omits
Ran out of time at the end. Another issue with strategy.</p>
<p>Writing Skills: 66 / 5 Wrong/ 0 Omits
I missed 3 in the "Identifying Sentence Errors" section and two in the "Improving Sentences" section.</p>
<p>Well, I hope these scores don't mean I'm doomed to a bad record as a junior. I get really good grades with the hardest schedule possible. I go to one of the top 15 private schools in the US. Sadly, I couldn't get to any of the practice sessions with our resident all-around strategy teacher or do any practice on my own. Remember, I'm a sophomore. </p>
<p>What do you guys think? Any people here take it as a sophomore and do as badly as I did?</p>
<p>You have a Selection Index of 182, you probably will not be able to raise it high enough to be a National Merit Semi-Finalist, but certainly high enough to be commended. I live in Florida and the cutoff was a 216, so that would be a 34 point increase for you which equates to a 340 point increase on the SATs. Those types of score jumps are unlikely, but plausible. My sophmore year SI was a 209 and my junior year SI rose to a 226 making me eligible for National Merit Semi-Finalist (and most likely Finalist standing). So that was a 17 point jump with a bit of studying but mostly just from being one year older and one year wiser. </p>
<p>But, good luck. I'd predict (with a good bit of studying and the normal progression) a 205 for you next year.</p>
<p>I'm assuming your total score is 182. How is that a bad score? Isn't that 80th percentile, or something? That's really good given you didn't prep at all, had little idea of what to expect (which hurts the way you time yourself), and didn't sleep well the night before.</p>
<p>If it helps, that's almost the score I got as a soph, and my junior year score shot up high enough to get me commended by the NMSC (not a big deal probably, but if I prepped I'd probably have gotten a higher score). For my soph score I went to a two-hour long math prep session, but for my junior year score I did absolutely nothing - just went through the practice test the night before and gave up after 20 questions of boredom. A year alone can make a huge difference, and if you prep, you'll most likely get the score you want next year!</p>
<p>i got a 164 my sophmore year and got a 202 my junior year which was a 38 point increase or 380 for the SAT!!!
i think anything can be possible with the SAT, you just have to put a lot of time into it
if you do a lot of practice tests this year then you may not reach semifinalist level but you could definately go above 200</p>
<p>Wow thats not bad..
i got a 169 in sophmore year
in junior year - 198 (from a prep class. Studyworks)
First sat - 1940 (no prep)
second sat - 2080 (a bit prep)
third - 2180 (combined) (prep from 3500 vocab list in barrons and thats about it).</p>
<p>I went up 500 points from just a prep class and from a bit of self studying.</p>
<p>my daughter raised her score 25 points when she took it as a Junior.<br>
Study psat guides and take the SAT a couple of times before next year, you will do fine!</p>
<p>I hate people like you when I was a sophmore I got a 154, I took it again as a junior and got a 164. A 182 is not a bad score. The only thing that is somewhat bad is your critical reading, everything else is good.</p>
<p>Don't worry about it! I got a 192 sophomore year.... Got a 222 this year and am currently quite happily a National Merit Semifinalist!</p>
<p>In case you were wondering, no, I didn't do any studying during that one year period - I just was more familiar with the test and had more rest. Judging from what you said, if you do a bit of studying and get a good night's sleep the night before the test, you absolutely have a shot at National Merit.</p>
<p>A lot of people have a rough time with PSAT as a sophomore. Just try to read a bit more to get your CR up. </p>
<p>Also, I try to QUICKLY (~ 5 mins tops on all of them) answer the grid-in questions on the math question first and then go back to the beginning. Even if you do get them wrong, you don't lose any points, but if you get them right, you gain points! If I'm still short on time, I guess on the MC questions, which is a lot easier than guessing on the grid-ins. If you do have time at the end, try them again to make sure you are right.</p>
<p>I completely agree w/ tapedDuck.
I'd just like to say that, u can't really prep a lot for PSAT. Although the questions are fairly similar to SAT, at some point I believe that one can easily make a really awesome score w/ o prepping hours after hours. Just go to the test center in a fresh mood and try ur best! U'll be fine! (however, u may feel like studying for the voc, math strategies since they could be used for SAT too! so why not prepping a bit earlier!?</p>