What do we know about the Pre-ACT vs. PSAT?

Test Preparation
1

Hi all,

My son is 10th grader this coming year. When my D was going through the gauntlet she took the SAT (twice) as a 10th grader in order to apply for a special STEM program. I think having a couple tests under her belt really helped prepare her for testing later in HS, even though that wasn’t original intent. (She almost aced the PSAT the next Fall, for example.)

However, I don’t want my S to take the SAT this Fall b/c he’s not on accelerated math track like she was (long story) so I don’t think he’s ready for its content.

I was thinking he could/should take PSAT as practice this year (I know from CC that’s not uncommon) but just learned that our district won’t sign up Sophomores for the test. They do, however, give the Pre-ACT to all sophomores.

My question: I think this is a newer test from ACT and I’m not so familiar. Do you think Pre-ACT is good enough practice and will give a good indication to help him figure out where he is, what he needs to work on, etc?

Thoughts appreciated!!

2

And just fyi, his Sophomore math is a spiraled math course (common core-based) that seems to be equivalent to Algebra 2/Trig. As a Junior he’ll take math III/Pre-Calc and then Calc as a senior.

3

It depends on what you are trying to accomplish. From what I have seen anecdotally the pre-ACT gives a pretty good indication of what the ACT score will be. Also an indication of what areas are strong and which are weak. So if that is all you are looking for, it should be fine.

4

Yes, that’s what I’m looking for so I think it will be fine. If he wants to practice for the PSAT (I’m not sure if he really cares but since his sister was NMF he might!) I’m thinking he could take the SAT over the summer b4 Junior year – he’ll prolly have enough exposure to the math content at that point, but mostly to just get a sense of the test.

Tks!