<p>My daughter got a score of 180 on the PSAT as a sophomore.</p>
<p>NMS Cutoff in my state varies from 210-216 in recent years - usually 212ish.</p>
<p>What I need to know is whether anyone out there managed a 35 point increase in their PSAT score from sophomore to junior year? </p>
<p>If it is possible, how did you prepare differently for the junior year PSAT? </p>
<p>Thanks for any advice on this issue!</p>
<p>-NP</p>
<p>It’s definitely possible. I got a 197 sophomore year, and have yet to get my scores this year as a junior, but I estimate that I am going to get around a 210-220. Also, I didn’t study much prior to it.
If I did study, I would have started in the summer of sophomore year, but your daughter can start now by learning vocab. if she is weak on that part. You can usually find past PSAT tests online by google, and use these for practice or just use the regular SAT.
In fact, I would recommend just using SAT tests instead out of the Blue Book for practice. I found that raising a score just comes with practice.
I haven’t studied many of the “strategies” except writing rules, because I feel that if you practice enough, then you can develop your own personal test taking strategies that come naturally to you.</p>
<p>For example, I got a 610 on Math on my soph. PSAT, and on 2 recent SAT practices, I got 760 on both.
This increase was unexpected, but after practicing a little bit with real tests, everything suddenly clicked, and I kind of found out my own ways to solve most problems.</p>
<p>Practice makes perfect! Good luck to your daughter, she has plenty of time!</p>
<p>Thanks for the inspiration.
My younger child will need help as well.</p>
<p>My son had 177, went up to 212. SAT course and also prepared better mentally.</p>
<p>I wish we lived in your state, he would have been a semi-finalist but my state and a few others have 221 cutoffs so only definite Ivy material get semi-finalist status. Already got an SAT score where he would have gotten finalist status.</p>
<p>FYI, he got an 80 on the math PSAT but a 710 on the SAT Math section. We will be working on problem-solving strategies to help him improve his SAT Math.</p>
<p>S2 went from 187 to 224. He mostly used retired PSAT exams to prepare over the summer before junior year. Min of 1 time measured test per week. Redo the wrong problems.</p>
<p>I am grateful for the feedback. Suddenly, going from 180 to 215ish doesn’t seem as daunting.</p>
<p>I will design a plan for her over summer as you all suggested.</p>
<p>Many thanks!</p>
<p>I always get irritated when I read a thread asking advice or chances and such only to find that the OP dropped off the face of the Earth without telling us his/her final outcome.</p>
<p>It’s like reading a novel and having the last chapter torn out. Positively maddening!
So I vowed not to do that.</p>
<p>Therefore, resurrecting this dead thread 1 year later with an update: D went from a 180 sophomore PSAT to 227 junior PSAT. </p>
<p>Not sure about next year with the New SAT/PSAT and all, but at least for this year, it proved that practice makes perfect!</p>
<p>Thanks for all the advice y’all fellow CC’ers gave us!
NP</p>
<p>@Nerdyparent Wow great for her! How did she prepare? Any insights you can offer?</p>
<p>EDIT: Oops, didn’t realize the post was from a year ago
It is possible, but the student has to be motivated. I got a 188 sophomore year and just got back my Junior PSAT with a score of 226 (yay for a 38 point increase!). My parents frankly don’t know anything about college admission, so everything I learned was entirely by myself, although they payed for the Blue Book. Most of my progress came from the two-ish weeks before the test, when I spent almost all day studying for it. If you spread that cram session out, it is very reasonable, if the student has a drive to learn.</p>
<p>@Ennnnn In a nutshell, here’s what I did (mainly culled from reading many posts here on CC):</p>
<p>1) I bought about 8 old actual PSAT’s off Amazon and had her do about 1 per week for the last 8 weeks leading up to the test
2) I got an iphone Vocab app called Knowji and had her go through the words a couple of times in the months leading up to the test
3) I also had her do Blue Book SAT sections approx 2 per day over the summer on Mon-Fri to simultaneously prep for the SAT; during school (on weekends she wasn’t doing PSAT’s) I just had her do 2 SAT sections per weekend - either a Math/CR or Math/Writing section on weekends from the Blue Book / SAT Online Course since doing whole SATs on weekends during school wasn’t practical (for us, anyway). Practicing with ACTUAL old tests is the key.
4) I had her read Erica Meltzer’s Grammar book over the summer - she got perfect 80/800 on both PSAT/SAT writing sections mainly because of this book. For the SAT essay, I just had her read “writing a 12 essay” a couple of times and had her do just 2 practice essays (SAT sec 1) the month before the test (not worth wasting too much time on this IMHO since Grammar knowledge is king >> Essay, and no essay on the PSAT- at least not the pre-2016 PSAT).
5) I got the Keller’s New Math SAT Game Plan and had her read that over summer. It seems to me that math is the least forgiving because if you miss two or three questions you are already in the lower 70’s/700’s. Keller wrote a great section about the back door method which I think was a very valuable tip. This book is a hidden gem.
6) For Reading, which IMHO is the hardest section to raise one’s score on, I relied on 2 books:
Over spring break, I had her read through Kreiger’s Critical Reading Book and did one chapter per day out of a pink book called Feinstein’s Programmed College Vocabulary (a thin & expensive but worthwhile book - I found this book myself through Amazon searches and went out on a limb and had her read it - I think it helped). After that it was pretty much doing practice CR sections from old PSAT’'s and SAT’s.</p>
<p>Hope this helps. With the new changes in the PSAT/SAT I am not sure what we can expect.
Obviously, getting new materials that will simulate the new PSAT/SAT to practice on may be the biggest challenge 2016 test takers face - so much of what we did to prep will likely no longer apply to next year.
Also, before you accuse me of being an overbearing dad, my daughter asked me to help make her a study plan. She was a good sport about it and had a good attitude, and fortunately her hard work paid off.</p>
<p>-NP</p>
<p>@Nerdyparent – Thank you for the good words! I never intended for it to be hidden :)</p>