PSAT – WHAT TO EXPECT

OCTOBER 15, 2008

The Test

Time About 2 hours and 10 minutes long 30 minutes of filling out paper work

Skills Reading, math reasoning and writing skills

that are important for college success Knowledge and skills developed in all of

your classes and experiences Critical thinking—reason with facts and

concepts

The Test

5 Sections Two 25 minute critical reading sections Two 25 minute math sections One 30 minute writing skills section

Scoring 1 point for each correct answer No point for skipped answers Subtract ¼ of point for wrong answers on

multiple choice questions

48 Critical Reading Questions 2 sections, 25 minutes each 13 sentence completion questions 8 short-paragraph critical reading

questions 27 long-paragraph critical reading

questions

38 Math Questions

2 sections, 25 minutes each 28 standard multiple-choice questions 10 student-produced response (grid-in)

questions (ALWAYS ANSWER THESE…THERE IS NO PENALTY FOR GUESSING)

39 Writing Skills Questions

1 section, 30 minutes 20 improving sentence questions 14 identifying sentence errors questions 5 improving paragraph questions

Should I guess if I don’t know the answer? Educated guessing means guessing an

answer whenever one or more of the choices can be eliminated as definitely wrong.

YOU SHOULD DEFINITELY USE EDUCATED GUESSING! IF YOU CAN ELIMINATE EVEN 1 CHOICE…GUESS. THE ODDS ARE IN YOUR FAVOR!!!

Don’t randomly guess… You have no idea what the question is asking. You don’t have time to really read the question.

Do I have to answer every question to get a good score? You are not expected to be able to

answer all the questions. Students can earn an above-average

score by getting only half the questions right and skipping the rest of the questions.

Work carefully and efficiently…be sure you have answered all the easy questions. Usually the easy questions are at the beginning of many sets of the same question types.

Reducing Anxiety

Relax…this is just the first step in the long road of getting ready for college.

Get a good night’s sleep before the test. Eat a good breakfast. Bring a watch, pencils and calculator. Wear comfortable clothes…be sure you

bring something to wear if the room is cold.

Calculators

There isn’t a single question on the PSAT for which a calculator is required. There are several questions where a calculator could be used, and since they are permitted…bring one!

If you forget to bring a calculator, you will not be able to use one.

Almost any standard calculator will do; four-function, scientific, and graphing calculators are all allowed.

Critical Reading Questions

Tackle short passages first. Tackle passages that have familiar

subjects first. Critical reading questions for a passage

are not arranged in order of difficulty. Try all the questions on the passage.

Read quickly and purposefully.

Critical Reading

Read the blurb at the beginning Quickly read for the main idea Choose a question and paraphrase it Read what you need to answer the

question Answer in your own words Eliminate answers and make your best

guess.

Kinds of Reading Questions

Vocabulary in-context Paraphrasing or interpreting specific

information in the text (the answer will be in the reading)

Analyzing or finding the central though of a passage (hint: be sure you check the opening and summary sentences of each paragraph.)

Finding implications and drawing inferences from the text (requires your judgement)

Evaluating the techniques, logic, application of the text (CHALLENGING!)

Sentence Completion Strategies Cover the answer choices with your hand

and read the sentence. Think for yourself. Read the sentence

and write your answer in the book. After you think you know the answer,

uncover the answer choices and look for the word that is closest to the word you came up with.

Look for clues and trigger words!

Samples

John made some ______ comments about Marcus’s artwork. intelligent critical interesting dry Appreciative???????????????

John made some ______comments about Marcus’s artwork, which John though was fantastic. intelligent critical interesting dry appreciative

Many feature films are criticized for their ____ content, even though television news is more often the medium that depicts violent events in excessive detail.

In a vitriolic message to his troops, General Patton insisted that he would ____ no further insubordination, no matter how brutal the ensuing engagements might become.

Many feature films are criticized for their ___ content, even though television news is more often the medium that depicts violent events in excessive detail. discretionary graphic dramatic artistic honest

In a vitriolic message to his troops, General Patton insisted that he would ___ no further insubordination, no matter how brutal the ensuing engagements might become. impede brief denote brook expose

Order of Difficulty

Section 1—Critical Reading (24 questions) Sentence Completion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8Easy Med. Hard9—24 Critical Reading (no order)

Section 2—Math (20 Questions) Problem Solving

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Easy Medium Hard

Section 3—Critical Reading (24 questions) Sentence Completion

25 26 27 28 29Easy Med Hard30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47

48NO ORDER

Section 4—Math (18 questions) Problem Solving

21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Easy Med Hard

Grid in 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 Easy Med Hard

Section 5—Writing Skills Improving Sentences

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Easy Med Hard

Error ID 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 Easy Med Hard

Improving Paragraphs 35 36 37 38 39No Order of Difficulty

Free PSAT Prep

http://education.yahoo.com/college/essentials/practice_tests/psat/

http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/psat/prep.html

http://www.petersons.com/testprep/practice_test.asp?id=436&sponsor=1&path=ug.pft.psat&referer_type=SL&testname=PSAT&test_id=40&sitelicense_key=553296

Practice Test

Cracking the PSAT/NMSQT. 2009 Edition. Princeton Review, Random House, Inc.

Barron’s PSAT/NMSQT 2008. 13th Edition. Sharon Weiner Green and Ira K. Wolf.

Collegeboard.com PSAT/NMSQT