The PSAT®s are the first daunting test on the way toward your college career. You probably have a bunch of questions: what is on the test, how do you know if you did well, and what does it mean to have a good PSAT® score for your sophomore year? We understand that it’s scary and overwhelming, but the easiest way to do your best is to start practicing as soon as possible. For some of you, that may mean taking the PSAT®/NMSQT or PSAT® 10 this year. With the right information and preparation, you can achieve your personal best PSAT® scores. Since there are some differences between the tests and pros and cons to taking either one, this guide will explain your options to demystify the confusing tangle of tests that lead to the college of your dreams.

New Rules for the PSAT®:

As part of the transition to digital testing in line with the new SAT®s, the PSAT® has been updated to a digital format, which brings several innovative changes to ease the testing experience for students. One major update is the test format: every question is presented individually, and students navigate through them using on-screen controls. This one-at-a-time question presentation can help reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed by a full page of questions.

In the digital version, there is no penalty for wrong answers, which strategically improves your chances of scoring higher even with educated guesses. Also, the shift from paper to digital has streamlined the test structure, notably shortening the total test duration compared to the older version.

The digital PSAT® is shorter than the traditional paper test, reducing overall test-taking time and potentially lessening test fatigue. Here’s the updated breakdown of the sections by question count and time:

Differences Between the PSAT® 10 and PSAT®/NMSQT:

Besides the fact that the PSAT® 10 is shorter and easier than the PSAT®/NMSQT, a big difference is the time of year that high schools hold the test. Students take the PSAT®/NMSQT in the first half of the school year, between October and November. In comparison, schools hold the PSAT® 10 in February and March.

So, you can only really take one test in your sophomore year. Deciding which test to take be a hard choice for some students, but remember that you still have another year to take the PSAT®/NMSQT in eleventh grade.

One upside to taking the PSAT®/NMSQT as a sophomore comes from seeing where you would place regarding the National Merit Scholarship. You won’t be able to qualify in tenth grade, but you can take the time and practice to find where you could use some help and where you rank among other students across the country. However, if you’re just looking to get a feel for the test and aren’t concerned about rankings, the PSAT® 10 might be a better fit.The new tests also have different focuses in their questions. We’ll break the sections down for you so you can be more confident in preparing for these big exams.

How to Study for the New PSAT® Reading and Writing Section:

The updated digital PSAT®/NMSQT continues to challenge students with passages from literature, social sciences, history, and science, focusing on analysis, contextual vocabulary, and interpretation of scientific evidence. When analyzing texts, particularly in history and social studies, you’ll need to identify patterns and derive solutions from the information provided.

You’ll find the approach to vocabulary in the digital PSAT® to be context-based, allowing you to use your reasoning rather than rote memorization to understand word meanings within the passage context. This shift from traditional vocabulary tests means no more cramming with flashcards for esoteric words.

The digital PSAT® combines your Reading and Writing scores into a single evidence-based reading and writing score. This unified score reflects your overall ability in these areas, though each section may have slightly different question types.

The Writing section, exclusively comprising multiple-choice questions, tests your ability to analyze arguments and comprehend informative or explanatory texts and nonfiction essays. These passages align closely with those in the Reading section, ensuring a cohesive test experience.

One notable feature of the Writing section is the integration of charts, graphs, and tables with text-based questions, requiring you to evaluate these elements together. Some questions will focus on in-sentence editing, asking you to correct grammatical errors within specific sentence parts, enhancing your practical language skills.​

A Look at the New PSAT® Math Section:

Understanding Your PSAT® Scores:

Now that you’re familiar with the test’s set-up, you may be worried about figuring out all those numbers on your score sheet. When you receive your PSAT® report, you’ll be looking at four different scores; scaled, section, raw and National Merit Selection Index. Let’s take a look at the individual scores you’ll be getting and what they mean overall.

Scaled Score:

This number shows your overall PSAT® score, between 320 and 1520. The top score is less than 1600 because of the relative difficulty of the SAT® over the PSAT®/NMSQT and PSAT® 10. The score only combines two sections, one for Math and one fo Reading and Writih.

Section Scores:

As the name suggests, these are the scores you receive per section, which range from 160 to 740. Each score refers to a single portion of the test

Score Range:

This indicates the variability in your score, showing how much your scores might fluctuate if you were to take different versions of the PSAT® under identical conditions. It provides a margin to reflect the possible variation in your performance due to different test circumstances or day-to-day variances in test-taking ability.

All Tester Percentile:

This percentile shows how your score compares to other test takers. If you are in the 70th percentile, for example, it means that you scored better than 70% of students who took the PSAT®/NMSQT. This percentile is calculated based on the actual performance of students in recent test cohorts.

National Merit Selection Index:

This number is the scale that the National Merit Scholarship Corporation uses to rank the scores for Commended Scholars and Semifinalists. The new PSAT®’s selection index will range between 48 and 228.

Calculating Your PSAT® Scores:

Since we’ve gotten the terms out of the way, we can focus on how the PSAT®s calculate its scores. The raw score converts to your section score, which turns into your scaled score. As mentioned before, only two numbers go into your overall scaled score. Half is for Math, and the other half combines the Reading and Writing sections. The PSAT® gives scores between 160 and 760 for each section.

The User Percentile only takes into account the data from students very likely to take the PSAT®. Here’s a chart that compares the total scaled scores with both percentiles for tenth graders. This chart can be an excellent tool to project good PSAT® scores for sophomores and what scores you may reasonably achieve.

User Percentile Scores for 10th Grade:

Source: The College Board

An Easier Way to Understand Your PSAT® Scores:

You must be tearing your hair out over all these figures by now. But, let’s take a step back and think about it. 50% is the middle of a population, like a 2.0 GPA out of 4. So, think of a “good” PSAT® score as one that ranges above the 50th percentile range. If you want to compare some more, this chart projects minimum section and total scores for 70th, 80th, 90th, and 99th percentiles.

Since new students take these tests every year, scores will fluctuate a bit. Also, because this version of the PSAT® is new, the College Board’s data may not be as comprehensive as it will be in a few more years.

As you can see by the charts, the Math section is more competitive than the Reading and Writing. If you want to score in the 99th percentile, you’ll need 30 to 40 points more than you would in the Reading and Writing sections. However, the scores aren’t usually off by that much and at some percentile levels, Reading and Writing are more competitive than Math.

Thinking Ahead to the NMSC:

Let’s say you received a highly competitive score. If you’re already around the 95th percentile as a tenth grader, you’re on course to qualify as a National Merit Semifinalist or Finalist. However, you’ll still have some way to go because the NMSC only awards the top 1% of PSAT® test takers in their junior year.

From that top 1%, 8,600 scholarships are awarded to finalists in the form of National Merit Scholarships, Corporate-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards, and College-sponsored Merit Scholarship awards.

That may sound discouraging, but for the other 2/3 of students who receive commendation awards from the organization, there are plenty of scholarships to go around. There’s the National Achievement Scholarship program for African-American students, the National Hispanic Recognition Program, and the Telluride Association, which offers scholarship money for eleventh-grade summer programs in the social sciences and humanities.

Where to Go Next:

Though most students qualify for summer programs around seventh grade, you can still get into some in high school with exemplary SAT® scores. Associations like Duke TIP Option and Johns Hopkins’ Center for Talented Youth have great summer programs aimed at high school students. If you’re looking into this as an option, you should take the PSAT® in tenth grade and the SAT® junior year.

We know that’s a lot to digest all at once. Just keep these tips in mind: take on as much as you think you can handle, recognize what your personal “good” score is and practice, practice, practice! It’s a little overwhelming at first, but it’ll be worth it to get that oversized acceptance envelope in the mail.

Looking for PSAT® practice?

Albert has hundreds of PSAT® practice questions and full-length practice tests to try out.