Why is the psat important
Everything you need to know about the PSAT!
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what's up everybody
I am kreuz affa and I'm here to talk to
you about the PSAT so first of all what
is the PSAT PSAT is kind of like what it
sounds like it's essentially a pre SAT
and it's something that you're either
gonna take your sophomore year or your
junior year or both the way to look at
the PSAT is a warm-up or practice run
for the real SAT the actual SAT is the
test that you're gonna take to apply to
colleges different colleges are gonna
look at those scores combined with your
GPA and then determine whether or not
they want to give you admission to their
school now why do some students take the
PSAT their sophomore year in high school
this is often done just to give students
a rough idea of how they will score on
the real SAT because the tests are
actually very very similar so let me
talk about what's on the actual PSAT
when you take the PSAT there's gonna be
four sections there's going to be a
writing section a reading section and
then two math sections so the actual SAT
is scored out of 1600 points whereas the
PSAT is scored out of only 1500 and 20
points the reading and writing sections
combined for a total of 760 points and
then again the math sections total up
for 760 with a combined max score total
possible of 1500 and 20 if you're a
sophomore taking the test don't worry
about it go in there do your best and
use the test as a metric to tell you how
much practice you need thereafter if
you're taking the PSAT as a junior it's
a little bit different you will have a
chance to use your PSAT score to qualify
for something called a National Merit
Scholarship qualifying for a National
Merit Scholarship varies from state to
state different states have different
indices to qualify as a National Merit
semifinalist in California for example
you need an index of 223 what does that
even mean
the way you calculate your index is as
follows
you take your combined score for the
verbal section double it add it to your
score overall for the math section and
then take that number and then chop off
the last zero and if you got above a 223
and live in California there's a high
likelihood that you will be a candidate
to qualify as a semifinalist for the
National Merit Scholar Program let's
look at a concrete example let's pretend
that you got a 720 on the verbal section
and you got a 700 on the math section so
as a combined score of 14 2000 15 20
really good score so you take your 720
for the verbal double it up to 1440 and
then add the 700 on for the map so that
becomes 21 40 you take that you chop off
the last 0 and you get a index of 214
now that's a really high score and a
really good score
but if you live in California you
wouldn't make the cutoff to be a
National Merit Scholar semifinalist in
other states that may stand up and that
may get you where you want to go and
allow you to be a semifinalist the
bottom line is whether you're a
sophomore or a junior the PSAT while it
can open some great opportunities and
give you some really good insights is
nothing to lose sleep over it's not
something that should be considered
super stressful go out do your best but
don't worry about it beyond that the
truly important test is the actual SAT
or the actual a CT that colleges will
look at and will make a determination of
whether or not they want to admit you
based on that score I hope this answers
every question you had about the PSAT
but if it doesn't make sure to leave a
question in the comment section below
take it easy
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