Hello Jason.
I have a question about the PSATs and the SATs. I've heard people say that your PSAT score in your junior year is about your projected SAT score. Is this true at all? Is is actually possible to improve your score by 300 points or more from the time you receive your PSAT score to the time you take the real SAT?
Thanks for reading.
- PSAT Student
My response:
There is some truth to this - there's about 5 sections on the PSAT whereas there is 10 on the real SAT. It's mean to project by taking this sample performance and extrapolating it. However, students are less prepared for the PSAT than the SAT, might feel less comfortable testing in their regular classroom surrounded by peers than in an SAT testing setting (often with more random students) and your performance on the PSAT will be weighted more heavily because there are less questions - so if you do really well or do worse than expected, you'll probably do a bit more moderately on th actual exam.
It's certainly possible to raise your score by 300+ points in thats time frame, especially since the PSAT is taken in October of junior year. That means you could have as much as a full year to raise your scores. Personally I went from about 1950 to 2260 from summer before junior year to November of junior year. If your score is lower, you have an even greater chance of raising your scores, and vice versa.
Does this clear the issue up a bit?
Regards,
Jason
