Before you look at specific strategies for the reading, writing and math portions of the PSAT, it's a good idea to review these general tips.
Set a Realistic Goal
Everyone has different levels of skills and expectations. Before you take the PSAT, think realistically about your own goals. If you want to try for a Merit Scholarship award, go for it -- but realize that to reach that goal, you will have to work harder than someone who is taking the PSAT simply to practice for the SAT. Each section of the PSAT is scored between 20 and 80: Decide what score you'll be happy with and work toward reaching that goal.
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Create a Schedule/Timeline
Unless you've put off PSAT prep until the first week of October, use a calendar to plan your attack.
Very Long Term:
We're talking about a year or more before the PSAT, and this advice is important for anyone who wants a good choice of higher education options.
- Take the most challenging courses that you think you can handle in every academic area.
- Do a lot of reading and expand your choices to books that are a bit more difficult than what you're used to.
- Pay attention to vocabulary: If you come upon a word you don't understand, look it up.
- Try becoming a problem solver and a flexible thinker.
- Determine your most challenging subjects -- your weakest areas -- and work on them.
Long Term: 3-6 months before the PSAT
- Begin taking practice tests and finding your areas of weakness.
- Look over our general test-taking suggestions.
- Learn the directions for each segment of the test. These won't change, and if you know what to do ahead of time, you won't have to spend time reading the directions during the PSAT.
- If a good PSAT score is important to you, invest in a prep book and/or an online or classroom course.
Short Term: 1-2 weeks before the PSAT
- If you haven't yet taken practice tests, start now. Pay attention to to your weaker areas and do what you can to strengthen your knowledge in those subjects.
- Make sure you understand the test instructions in advance. This will save lots of time on test day.
- Chill out! Even if you've waited until now to prep for the PSAT, realize that this is only a practice test and has absolutely no bearing on college admissions.
- Make sure you get enough sleep and eat balanced meals between now and the day of the exam.
Plot Your Basic Strategies
You'll do better on any test if you know how it's set up and what's expected. The PSAT is likely to be different from the kinds of tests you're used to taking. Understanding what the PSAT is all about is key to acing it.
The Format of the PSAT Always Stays the Same
From year to year, there is never a change in the number and kinds of questions asked nor in the way in which they're asked. The format is always the same. What does change are the questions themselves.
Knowing this allows you to understand the PSAT's format and directions before you show up for the test. This way, you can focus on answering the questions, rather than spending time reading the instructions.
Another never-changing aspect of the PSAT is that in the Math and Sentence Completion sections, the easiest questions come before the harder ones. Therefore as you begin one of these sections, you can rely more on your gut feeling about the correct answer. The easier questions are less likely to be traps designed to throw you off course, while the later questions require more skepticism.
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Make a Smart Guess
One of the questions asked most about the PSAT is "Should I guess the answers?" The College Board, which creates the test, says it depends on the kind of guess:
Educated guessing means guessing an an answer whenever you are able to eliminate one or more of the choices as definitely wrong. Educated guessing may help you.
Random guessing probably won't help you because of the way the test is scored. Random guessing means that you have no idea which answer is correct. Don't waste time on that kind of question. Move on to the next one.
Despite what you might have heard, there is no penalty for guessing on the PSAT. There's a 1/4 point penalty for guessing wrong. But if you guess right, you gain a whole point. So, once again, here's the strategy:
Whenever you can eliminate one or more answers as definitely wrong, you will come out ahead by making a guess.
Here's a good explanation of guessing strategy:
This applies to everything except the Grid-in math question, where you write in the answer. If your answer is incorrect, you don't lose any points... so answer all of the Grid-in questions.
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Don't Get Hung Up on A Tough Question
Easy or hard -- all PSAT questions are equal -- so you don't get extra points for answering a more difficult question. Remember that you are allowed to skip around within each section of the PSAT, so if you can't answer a question, don't spend any extra time on it. Take care of all of the easier questions first. Circle the hard questions in the answer book, then come back to those tough questions after you've answered the ones you know. The second time you look at a challenging question, it often seems easier.
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Be Careful Using the Answer Sheet
If you lose your place and enter the answer on the wrong line of the answer page, your score will suffer. So make sure the answers are going in the right place. One strategy is to circle the right answers in the test book and then copy several over to the answer grid at one time.
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Keep an Eye on the Clock
It's easy to lose track of time during an exam like the SAT, so check the time remaining in each section. Test proctors are supposed to keep you posted on how many minutes are left... but they sometimes get distracted.
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For specific tips and strategies, click a PSAT test section:
