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taking the psat this wed. i fear thee, oh psat. Have consistenly scored from about 216 to 219 or so (on the practice one a couple weeks ago, and the new PR one). The cutoff in florida has been 214 for the past few years.
my average breakdown:
74 critical reading
76 writing
67 math
Anybody share similar concerns? Any tips for the big day? What to eat in the morning, what to study? Will coffee improve our speed and concentration? Why do we make stupid mistakes? What desperate measures can we resort to in an effort to forestall our eventual demise?

By Hsm (Hsm) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 01:10 pm: Edit

HEY I AM IN FLORIDA AND I KEEP GETTING LIKE 216! HELP ME!!
ALL THESE STUPID HURRICANES MAKE ME BUSY CLEANING UP DAMAGE INSTEAD OF PSAT PRACTICE!
HERE's what I have been doing- taking practice tests out of Kaplan PSAT like mad and Princeton PSAT the 11th test out of their 10 practice test book
77 math (on pSAT bulletin from college board test)
ONTOLOME- Barrons is great for MATH i went from 63 to 77 with barrons
63 critical reading (70 on PR test but 63 on the bulletin from the college board)
76 writing (on both PR and bulletin)

By Hsm (Hsm) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 01:10 pm: Edit

HEY I AM IN FLORIDA AND I KEEP GETTING LIKE 216! HELP ME!!
ALL THESE STUPID HURRICANES MAKE ME BUSY CLEANING UP DAMAGE INSTEAD OF PSAT PRACTICE!
HERE's what I have been doing- taking practice tests out of Kaplan PSAT like mad and Princeton PSAT the 11th test out of their 10 practice test book
77 math (on pSAT bulletin from college board test)
ONTOLOME- Barrons is great for MATH i went from 63 to 77 with barrons
63 critical reading (70 on PR test but 63 on the bulletin from the college board)
76 writing (on both PR and bulletin)

By Hsm (Hsm) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 01:11 pm: Edit

Help in Critical Reading- how do you approach it I AM HORRIBLE IN CRITICAL READING! Pleeeze somebody saved by Critical Reading Soul!

By Rmac43 (Rmac43) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 01:17 pm: Edit

I have the same problem guys, but i don't think i'm going to do any additional studying. I am just going to eat a good breakfast and go with the flow.

By Ontolome (Ontolome) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 01:50 pm: Edit

laughs. i didn't expect 5 posts in a matter of...25 minutes or so. There must be more panic-stricken souls out there than we think. I think Rmac is right; unless any one of us knows of some special performance enhancing drug, we're just gonna have to be zen about this. I did use barron's over the summer for math; last year I got a 52 on the psat math section, and this year's 67 is a big improvement. May i recommend coffee and bananas? Never had em for breakfast myself (though coffee is a staple of my diet), but from what i hear they endow you with magical powers right before the test. May the force be with us.

By Magoo112 (Magoo112) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 01:52 pm: Edit

you actually practiced for the PSAT? heh

By Ontolome (Ontolome) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 01:59 pm: Edit

and who are you to be so smug? I improved my math score out of necessity- for all future test-taking purposes. We're close enough to our goals that we want to secure them. Can you recommend any other ways of winning money and having the college of your choice notified of your existence? If it takes a few hours of studying, so be it.

By Piman3141 (Piman3141) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 02:06 pm: Edit

i agree magoo, i mean really. Is everyone else in this country way too stressed out over tests, or is it just you guys. You need to take a chill pill and smoke some pork to get ham.

By Celebrian23 (Celebrian23) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 04:10 pm: Edit

i practiced a little, but just to freshen up on math and get acquanited with the format, i'm done prepping for it, in 3 days it's not like any amount of studying will do much, so i'll just relax for 3 days instead

By Zofaan (Zofaan) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 09:00 pm: Edit

i was wondering how the kaplan psat test is in difficulty to the real thing. When I scored my kaplan practice test, it was 10 points higher than the practice test my school past out, officially made by the college board. But the test, does seem a little harder. I was wondering if that was just compensation.

Kaplan scoring:

CR M W

80 80 80
80 80 80
79 78 79
78 76 78
77 74 77
76 73 76
75 72 74
74 71 73
73 70 72
72 70
71
70

Official Practice Test:

CR M W

80 80 80
80 77 80
78 74 78
76 72 77
74 70 76
72 74
71 73
71

I'm Scared!!!

By Prfzer (Prfzer) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 09:03 pm: Edit

If you have taken the practice for PSAT from the college board and kaplan, can u tell me how ur scores compare with each other?

By Zofaan (Zofaan) on Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 09:08 pm: Edit

224 kaplan
214 collegeboard

I have to admit, the kaplan was slightly harder, but only slightly.

Note: I didn't really take the collegeboard version seriously; I didn't time myself, I just kind of looked through the questions. But the above scores are based on the same test from kaplan just different scoring scales.

By Prfzer (Prfzer) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 11:20 am: Edit

ok...i have two questions

1. Can somebody explain number 28 from section 4 from the CB PSAT?

2. Is the the scale for the practice PSAT from the CB going to be that harsh on the real one?

By Zofaan (Zofaan) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 02:44 pm: Edit

I wish I could answer that question. If I can remember question 28 was about the chart. The answer I think was D(II and III). The only variable was the less than 2. From that, the only thing you can possibly not know, is the average or mean.

That scale is very harsh. One wrong is like 77 math. In my practice books, the scale is lighter. But the test for CB was slightly easier. But still.

By Mesotired9 (Mesotired9) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 02:53 pm: Edit

Explanation for #28:

Statement I: You can't possibly know the average, because of the ones in the "Fewer than 2" category, you don't know how many are 1 and how many are 0. Thus, you can't compute the mean.
Statement II: The median you can find, because of those 11, none will be the median, and everything else is clear-cut, so you can find the median.
Statement III: The mode is 5.
So, you can determine II and III, and the answer is D.

As for the scale on the practice CB test, it's about the same as it was last year on the real test.

By Zofaan (Zofaan) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 03:08 pm: Edit

But do you think the practice books out there are harder than the CB test?

By Ontolome (Ontolome) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 03:58 pm: Edit

i think it varies. well, so does my concentration for that matter...the content of the college board's practice critical reading section was fairly easy (although the scale, yes, was quite harsh). The content of the new PR 11 practice tests PSAT was quite a bit harder, or at least one passage in particular, and that makes a big difference. I think that PR, Kaplan, and the actual test are more or less equal in difficulty. Barron's on the other hand is notorious for being more difficult than any other tests.
I'd guess your safest with kaplan if you want a true measure.

By Varr (Varr) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 04:44 pm: Edit

psat's are just for scholarships right??
Internationals dont qualify do they?

By Riflesforwatie (Riflesforwatie) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 07:00 pm: Edit

I don't have any practice tests other than the official one in the PSAT bulletin.

I got a 78CR-72M-73W, for an index of 223.

I'm in Oklahoma... I think the cutoff is 208.

By Aravis (Aravis) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 08:04 pm: Edit

Can anyone explain 31, 33, 34 in the writing section from the CB test? I suck at grammar... Lol. WHY are they wrong/right?

By Blee731 (Blee731) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 08:14 pm: Edit

I have consistently scored around 210 on Kaplan Practice PSAT tests, but on the College Board official PSAT practice, I scored a 220. I felt that the CB version was easier.

By Blee731 (Blee731) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 08:24 pm: Edit

Aravis,

For 31, "if not" describes the bicycle excursion, not the person, in that sentence.

For 33, I got it wrong However, I can see now that there is no error. If you read the entire sentence, you can see that nothing is gramatically wrong or excessive.

For 34, I got it wrong also However, A is the answer because "When looking" does not correspond with the "are still evident" at the end. I think "Looking" would be a better choice.

Hope this helps.

By Maverick27 (Maverick27) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 09:00 pm: Edit

couple quick Qs...
Since the collegeboard says that Algebra II isnt going to be on the new PSAT, can i assume that permutations and combinations and sequences and series isnt going to be on the test?

if it is, then can someone explain when i should use the permutations formula and the combinations formula? all the textbooks say basically the same thing, to look for situations when "order matters", but i dont know how to recognize when it does. can someone explain how they break these problems down in their heads? thanks

and also, is it a big deal if u dont receive semifinalist standing (aka miss the cutoff) but u do good on ur SATS, esp if ur aiming for the "ivies" and such?
(ok, i know its not a HUGE deal, but i have no experience with how much it matters, so i was just wondering. if anyone has any insight, please share.)

thanks

By Celebrian23 (Celebrian23) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 09:16 pm: Edit

the cb test was SO much easier, it kinda sucks that miss 1 for your raw score and you're down to a 77, that's kind of harsh

By Prfzer (Prfzer) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 09:25 pm: Edit

to summarize.....how harsh is the scale gonna be on the real PSAT compared to the CB's practice PSAT.........anyone?

By Rmac43 (Rmac43) on Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 09:30 pm: Edit

Well, given that the CB practice PSAT is all we really have to go by, i'll venture to say that the curve on the real thing will probably be extremely similiar

By Xredcomet (Xredcomet) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 05:27 pm: Edit

Does anyone know what the cutoff score in South Carolina is?

By Maverick27 (Maverick27) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 06:19 pm: Edit

can someone answer my Qs please?

By Altf4 (Altf4) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 06:37 pm: Edit

will someone please explain to me no. 36 of section 4 on the CB psat? i got 18 as an answer.

By Zofaan (Zofaan) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 07:16 pm: Edit

(1 * 2) * 3

First square 2 to get 4.
Add 1(2) to 4 to get 6

6 * 3 is the new situation

Square 3 to get 9
Add 6(3) to 9 to get 27

27 is the answer.

You might have squared the wrong number or something.

By Altf4 (Altf4) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 07:18 pm: Edit

i missread the problem,and so i got the whole a and b thing backwards. thanks for pointing it out.

By Altf4 (Altf4) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 07:23 pm: Edit

does anyone have an explanation for 26 from section 5 (CB)? is it a parellelism conflict?

By Altf4 (Altf4) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 07:25 pm: Edit

oh, and 36 as well...no more

By Zoogies (Zoogies) on Monday, October 11, 2004 - 07:35 pm: Edit

Bah, humbug. I scored a 223 last year (66 V, 77 Math, 80 Writing <--*points at writing fluke*) but have consistently scored in the same range or slightly lower on practice tests.

Then, last year I was scoring around 210 on my practice tests.

I love how the test books are so inconsistent. (Barron's v Princeton Review). It's comforting to know that the exact test format is not known to the test prep companies. *Grr* They better have a handsome curve.

I'm in MA, cutoff is 221 last I checked. 221! It's tied for highest in the nation, and I only barely made it last year. However, on my practice tests I've been making a bunch of stupid mistakes in my strongest subject, math. I figure if I get an 80, which I should, and get no more than three incorrect on the writing, I should have a nominal improvement over last year. My verbal has gone up fairly dramatically through the course of tenth grade.

We make stupid mistakes because we are careless. I would suggest using all of your allotted time, but don't fret over it so you can maintain yourself for the next section. You can break down crying after section 5, though

I practice out of the Barron's, which has harder tests, but ironically did terrible on the CB Critical Reading section - a 71! Five wrong! A few vocabulary questions hit me hard; their sentence completions were definitely more difficult than Barron's.

There have been no permutations or matrices or any algebra two stuff, really. Algebra II is generally a 'junior' subject so anything algebra II is just light and basic. It's just the manner in which the questions are presented that get people.