Americans taking the PSAT tomorrow?

[Patel108]

How many of you are taking the PSAT tomorrow? I am currently spending the rest of the day sort of cramming for it by doing practice tests and various problems (well that and being on IB Survival )

Any of you guys trying to get National Merit Scholar? That is one reason I want to do so well on it, but I am not sure if it will help me in the long run.

Edited October 13, 2010 by Patel108

[azulverde:)]

I AM DOING IT TOMORROW. I have to arrive at school at 7 am and am certainly not ready. As for your question it will help you out in the long run a lot if you get the scholarship. I think u should just go to sleep and get a good breakfast cause since you have been taking hard courses all there is on there is very easy its pretty much like the SAT (if you have started studying for the SAT, i did when i was in freshman year (just dont tell people cause they will call you a geek and people might just give you ideas like start studying for the MCAT I will my freshman year in college dont ask im very random when im tired) so yea dont cram it will do you no good

[Austin Glau]

I like the ACT better than the SAT, but that was last year with the "Plan" . Tommorow i am going to take the PSAT too, at 7:30, all the juniors are doing it. Im not going to study really since its the practice, and yeah you can get scholarships for it but with the demographic at my school i wouldn't stand a chance

[azulverde:)]

haha me neither except for the fact that i am now going to go to sleep so i beat people in my class... little piece of advice start studying for the SAT or ACT and study for the subject SAT right now just do 5 pages of a book if you get one or whatev idk go to collegeboard.com they will send u daily quiestions do that i think it helps cause it gives explanations too

[elmar]

I've studied for the past week or so, and because I somewhat know what score I need for scholarships, I know I'm only 4-6 points away, which KILLS me. I shouldn't over-stress about it because obviously the actual SAT will outweigh my PSAT, but I'd still really like to be a National Merit Scholar.

[Patel108]

So how did you guys do?

Math was extremely easy although I think I missed one. Reading was alright although I thought some of the questions hard. Writing, however, I thought sort of hard. I got a lot Es (or No errors) for my answers on that section and that just did not seem right, and I think I screwed up. Overall though, I think I did alright.

[Guest Red XII]

So how did you guys do?

Math was extremely easy although I think I missed one. Reading was alright although I thought some of the questions hard. Writing, however, I thought sort of hard. I got a lot Es (or No errors) for my answers on that section and that just did not seem right, and I think I screwed up. Overall though, I think I did alright.

I believe about 20-25% of the answers tend to be E in Writing.

If you had more than that, that's probably not good.

When in doubt, there's usually something wrong with it.

[JoeG]

While I didn't take it this year, I did take it for my first three years of High School. If you're going to take the SAT, try to do so in the winter, or early in the spring of your Junior year. If you have to, take it during the fall of your Senior year.

The PSAT can actually be a good predictor of SAT scores lol. My score on the SAT was very close to my "converted" score for the PSAT.

If you score low on the PSAT, and you haven't had experience with the test before, don't worry. Once you get experienced to the test, you should start to do much better on it. I can attest to that for the PSAT.

[Guest IMBATMAN]

I'm taking it on October 16th (Saturday) I'm a Junior and I know the chances of me getting the scholarship award is slim, but I'm talking this seriously and studying a lot.

[Guest Red XII]

I'm taking it on October 16th (Saturday) I'm a Junior and I know the chances of me getting the scholarship award is slim, but I'm talking this seriously and studying a lot.

Good luck!

Whatever you do, don't try to memorize a bunch of vocab for either the PSAT or the SAT. There's only ever a few questions on it, which means you're learning many, many words that won't ever show up on the test. Many of the words aren't even useful outside of the test.

Ultimately, it's better to have a basic understanding of word construction (prefix meanings, suffix meanings, root meanings) and to figure out the words rather than memorizing them and hoping the ones you get are the same ones you have memorized (which is a basically hopeless situation).

Also, many people will tell you not to guess. That's not really true. If you can eliminate one choice (down to four remaining choices), the expected value of guessing is positive. If you eliminate nothing (and thus guess completely), the expected value of guessing is zero.

Choosing one letter for the entire test and guessing that letter every time you need to guess (assuming you haven't eliminated it) is the best. That letter shouldn't be A or E, since they're often special responses. I recommend choosing either B, C, or D.

[Austin Glau]

I found the math section pretty easy, along with some of the writing section. On the vocab section i had trouble on a few questions since almost all of the words were words i "learned" in 7th grade for weekly SAT word practice but soon after forgot lol that did me a lot of good.

But yeah it went pretty well.

[amber123]

the math was soo easy (:

the vocab killed me though :\

[Guest Red XII]

the math was soo easy (:

the vocab killed me though :\

Yeah, the math is basically a joke compared to the stuff in IB math...especially HL.

[elmar]

So how did you guys do?

Math was extremely easy although I think I missed one. Reading was alright although I thought some of the questions hard. Writing, however, I thought sort of hard. I got a lot Es (or No errors) for my answers on that section and that just did not seem right, and I think I screwed up. Overall though, I think I did alright.

I believe about 20-25% of the answers tend to be E in Writing.

If you had more than that, that's probably not good.

When in doubt, there's usually something wrong with it.

Statistically, one in every five questions is a No Error. I think I put down 5/6 No Errors, which made sense to me with the whole statistics thing. Despite that, I found the writing section easy, although I do admit I always feel cocky when it comes to writing. The reading killed me, primarily because I wasn't watching the clock and scrambled for time at the end of the third section. Math bothered me immensely, because it was a lot harder than the practice tests I took, but nevertheless, I'm hoping I'll improve my PSAT score from sophomore year. I know I'm out of the water for the National Merit Scholar.

[Hexa]

I took it earlier today. We then got the rest of the day off. That gave me time to work on my math IA. Woot.

There were a couple questions that I wasn't sure about but I think I did well. I was aiming to be one of the finalists to put on my college applications, not one of the people that actually get a scholarship. I think I did OK. Maybe, maybe not.

Compared to the SAT though it was easy. The SAT is like twice as long and by the end you're like "Aaargh, just end already". I need to work on my stamina.

[adletaY]

So, how did everyone score?

I managed a 225

CR: 74

M: 73

W: 78