S19 took PSAT completely cold. By completely, I mean he spent 5-10 minutes with the College Board booklet so he knew the test format. No practice test, not even any practice questions, no studying. 550 Verbal, 620 Math. He said he didn’t have issues with completing the sections in time. Any idea where to even begin projecting next year PSAT or SAT scores from that? He will study for this next year, but this year just took it to get some benchmark.
Thanks.
@dadof4kids Have you signed up for the free Khan Academy PSAT/SAT online prep? You can upload his PSAT score and start the customized prep work from there. it’s CBs official prep and it should keep him busy until next year’s tests.
I’m a little confused about the relation between the PSAT and the SAT. The CB says, more or less, that they test the same things, but adjusted for grade level. This suggests to me that, in fact, they don’t test the same things, that there is material (most likely math) that is on the SAT that isn’t on the PSAT. Wouldn’t that mean that using Khan Academy SAT prep to prep for the PSAT means covering material that’s not on the SAT? I understand that it will be on the SAT the kid is taking a few months later, but doesn’t that mean that some of the time spent prepping for the PSAT isn’t really useful for the PSAT?
Also, @planner03 are you seriously suggesting that a kid spend the next 10 months studying for the PSAT? I would think that’s both unnecessary for a kid who can score 1170 cold and a recipe for burnout and resentment.
Absolutely not, lol! I actually misread your post and thought you asked how to “practice” for next year, when you when you asked how to “project” for next year. Sorry about that.
What I was trying to say is Khan academy has enough content to keep a kid busy for a long time! But yeah, there are seriously kids that study for a year, but definitely none of mine.
Unfortunately, the only thing this tells you is that he’ll probably score at least what he scored on this year’s test, on next year’s test. The good news is that, just like 99% of the people taking any standardized test, your son can practice for it.
I got a similar score when I took it in my sophomore year (1220), and it was also with little to no preparation (I took the practice test out of the booklet, but that’s about it).
This year, I wanted to get semifinalist, so about a month before the PSAT I started taking practice tests off of Khan Academy. Helped alot (I’d recommend printing them out). I ended up getting a 1460: Improved my RW score from 520 to 710 and my math from 700 to 750.
My point is, contrary to popular belief, practicing (doing well in school helps, but still won’t determine how well one does) is, by far, the best and easiest way to improve your score (PSAT and SAT). Former scores are irrelevant. There’s no saying how well he’ll do next year. It’s just a matter of how well he prepares for it.
By the way, this really depends on you and your son’s goals. But if he REALLY wants to get a good score for whatever reason, I’d recommend to start practicing 3 months in advance. The tests on Khan help tremendously. Then there are the Princeton Review books that are also very good, as well as some other test prep books that can help you prepare. I wouldn’t worry about not getting your goal score for the PSAT; it’s not that important of a test. But I would definitely practice for the SAT if you plan on taking it.
Thanks for info, your experience gives me some comfort. He is a good test taker, so hopefully will do better with some practice. I don’t really care about PSAT unless he makes semifinalist, but obviously ACT and or SAT matter tremendously. That’s what I’m really worried about. He takes a preACT test this spring, he will have time to study for that one, so probably will just to get a better indicator of where he is.