PSAT

The PSAT will be taken on October 11 for 7th and 8th grade students and it is free.

PSAT stands for Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test. The PSAT is a kind of rehearsal for students who plan to take the SAT, which is the test most colleges require for admission. A further side benefit of the test is that you can have your scores reported to colleges interested in students scoring in your range, and you will receive a barrage of pamphlets, catalogs, and brochures telling you about those schools.

The PSATis a 2 hour test that includes four 30-minute sections. The format consist of alternating verbal and math sections. The Verbal Section consist of 58 questions; 16 Sentence Completion, 12 Analogies, and 30 Critical Reading Questions. The Math Section consist of 50 questions; 25 Multiple-Choice, 15 Quantitative Comparisons, and 10 Student produced responses. The math section covers arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. No calculator is required!

The PSAT is scored from 20 (low) to 80 (high), with a national median score of 50. In 1995 an average score was about 49. Juniors with scores above 56 were in the top 25%; those with scores above 63, in the top 10%.If you add a zero to your score, you'll have a rough idea of what you might have gotten if you had taken the SAT. But again, keep in mind that scores tend to improve with every year a student stays in school, and that the more practice you have in taking standardized tests, the better you will do. When you get your scores back, take some time to figure out what they mean for you. Were there areas in which you did especially well? Especially badly? Did you have more trouble with the format than with the questions themselves? Do you need more practice in skipping the hard questions until you have answered enough of the easier ones? Or do you simply need to review your math skills or work on your vocabulary? Use the PSAT as an opportunity to analyze your strengths and weaknesses so that you can target your preparation for the SAT.

Information about the test was found on the website PSAT/NMSQT

http://www.edonline.com/collegecompass/psat.htm

Practice test

https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/psat-nmsqt-psat-10