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  College Preparation  
  The PSAT Test  
 

The PSAT is a standardized test given primarily to high school students in eleventh grade. The test score is used for the National Merit Scholarship competition. For this reason, it is also called the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT). Many students will also take the exam in tenth grade. However, the tenth grade results are not used for the National Merit Scholarship competition. The PSAT is given once a year, in mid-October, but different school districts may have different schedules.

Ideally, the PSAT results can give an indication of how well a student will do on the SAT Reasoning Test.  It is a shorter version of the SAT Reasoning Test and contains Reading, Math, and Writing sections.  All questions are multiple-choice and the test is two hours and ten minutes long.

Every year, about 16,000 high school juniors will qualify as National Merit Semifinalists. These students, if they maintain good grades, perform well on their SAT tests, and obtain an good recommendation letter from their high school principal, have the chance to become National Merit Finalists during their senior year. Many Semifinalists and Finalists receive offers from colleges, which often include full or near-full scholarships, and Finalists also receive a $2500 National Merit Scholarship.

 

National Merit Semifinalist Score Reference Table

 

What score on the PSAT can qualify you as a National Merit Semifinalist? Good question! Actually, there is not an absolute qualifying score, but the table below can be used as a reference:

 

AL

AK

AZ

AR

CA

CO

209

 212

210

202

 216

213

CT

DC

 DE

 FL

GA

HI

220

221

217

214

215

215

ID

IL

IN

IA

KS

KY

206

214

210

210

214

219

LA

ME

MD

MA

MI

MN

208

214

221

221

210

213

MS

MO

MT

NE

NV

NH

202

211

207

204

207

214

NJ

NM

NY

NC

ND

OH

221

206

218

215

206

211

OK

OR

PA

RI

SC

SD

207

215

215

215

211

205

TN

TX

UT

VT

VA

WA

216

215

202

213

220

214

WV

WI

WY

     

202

210

200

     
 

Some students choose not to take the PSAT test, but this prevents them from becoming Semifinalists.  We suggest that each student take a practice PSAT test and compare their score with the reference table above.  If the student's practice PSAT test score is less than 15 points below the qualifying score for the student's residence state, it's worth it to seriously practice and prepare for the PSAT. Also, PSAT preparation can help the student on his or her SAT test.

 

Structure of the PSAT

 

Two Sections-Critical Reading: Each section is 25 minutes long and the two sections contain a total of 13 Sentence Completion multiple-choice questions and 35 Reading Comprehension multiple-choice questions.

Two Sections-Math: Each section is 25 minutes long and the two sections contain a total of 28 regular multiple-choice questions and 10 Student-produced response (Grid-in) questions.

One Section-Writing: This section is 30 minutes long and includes a total of 14 Identifying Sentence Errors multiple-choice questions, 20 Improving Sentences multiple-choice questions, and 5 Improving Paragraphs multiple-choice questions.

 

Registering for the PSAT

 

 

Students register for the PSAT at the high school which they attend, and the test is usually held at their high school.  Please check with your school guidance counselor for registration information.

 

 

Test Date for the PSAT

 

 

October of each year