<p>This sudden emergence of PSAT angst makes me feel very grateful that I'm Canadian.
We have it so easy here. </p>
<p>Anyways, I'm kind of curious about the PSAT. So it's a test in Math, Writing, and Critical Reading? What's it out of? What's considered a good score? How is it marked? What's an omission (some people have said something along the lines of "I got a 75 in CR but that's with one omission so technically I didn't get anything wrong")? </p>
<p>I'm curious, does anyone mind enlightening me? Although I've heard of the SAT, this is the first time I've heard of the PSAT. </p>
<p>The PSAT is basically a practice SAT (but if you score very high, you can earn some scholarships from it). The PSAT is scored out of 240, each section (Math, Reading, & Writing) worth 80. The questions and format are almost identical to the SAT except the writing portion is all multiple choice on the PSAT (no essay).</p>
<p>Are they the same length in questions or is the PSAT shorter? I'm just curious to see how my scores would transfer form PSAT to SAT. I would normally think you'd just add a "0", but my online score report tells me that my 72 in writing would be 610-720ish.</p>
<p>If it helps, my SAT score was 100 points lower than my PSAT score, if you added a 0 to the end of my PSAT score, naturally. </p>
<p>My math score went down very significantly, and it was a lot harder on the SAT. </p>
<p>Other than that, the SAT is MUCH longer than the PSAT. By the end of the test I had so much test fatigue that I couldn't do the questions as fast as I usually would, so I think that it contributes to lower test scores.</p>
<p>^Adding onto that: The combination of fatigue and just more stress in general probably contributes to more errors, especially towards the end of the test.</p>
<p>So...is an omission advantageous if you don't know the answer for sure? Like, are less points taken off with an omission than a wrong answer, making it risky to just take a guess?</p>
<p>Yes. I missed 4 on critical reading and lost 1 point (for a score of 71). On writing, though, I missed 2 and didn't get any points taken off (for a score of 72). So I guess they round? 2/4=0, but 4/4=-1?</p>
<p>Omission would only be -1 off of raw score (ex. an omission on CR this year's wed test would be -1 on scaled/on W = -4 scaled etc.)</p>
<p>But if you miss it, its -1.25. The first two you miss are basically like two omissions, since the .5 rounds up, but after that, you start hurting because of the .25 guessing penalty. So yes, omissions > wrong answers, but generally if you can narrow it down to less than 4 answers, you should give it a guess lol.</p>
<p>I thought the PSAT was harder. I took the Oct 6 SAT and the Oct 18 PSAT, and I scored lower on the PSAT and I thought the questions were harder. Also, my worst section was math, and I'm in Pre-Calc so it should have been a breeze. I guess it just depends on what you know and the way you initially interpret the questions. I think the PSAT also has ridiculously harsh curves.</p>