Focus on critical reading section to score well on the PSAT
Dear Mr. Bradshaw,
I am a sophomore in high school and need some pointers on preparing for the college admissions tests. I am taking the PSAT in the fall of 2023 and the ACT and the SAT in the fall of 2024. I hope to do well on the PSAT because the National Merit Scholarship uses these scores to determine winners, and top ACT and SAT scores should be helpful in my applications to top colleges. What do you suggest?
— Signed, Student
Dear Student,
Each year about 1.6 million juniors take the PSAT in hopes of qualifying for the National Merit Scholarship Program. While the exact score for consideration varies from year to year and by state, it is always the top 1% or about 16,000 juniors who will qualify as semifinalists. Of those,15,000 will move on to become National Merit finalists with 8,000 of those winning scholarship money. You need to score in the top one percent of your state to be named a semifinalist.
The PSAT is scored on a scale of 320 to 1529. The math, reading and writing and language sections are scored individually, with scores falling between 8 and 38. The National Merit Corporation adds each section together and multiplies that sum by 2 to create a national selection index score. This then determines your National Merit eligibility.
As you can see, scoring well and becoming eligible for scholarship money is no small task. The key to doing well on these tests is to focus on the critical reading section, which tests vocabulary and reasoning comprehension. Math and writing skills are important, but critical reading is usually the most difficult section of that test to master. The key is in improving your verbal performance. This will help not only on standardized tests but in the classroom as well. The time you put into mastering reading skills will reap test performance dividends. Truth be told, this skill will also assist you in the math and writing sections of the PSAT and SAT. One way to improve verbal performance is to increase your fact retention accuracy and reading speed. This takes a great deal of practice.
I would suggest that you form the habit of reading challenging articles on a variety of subjects in a variety of publications on a daily basis. Read with a dictionary. I recommend Dictionary.com as it pronounces the word, which makes it easier to remember. Go as slowly as you need to in order to understand every word. This is not what you will do on standardized tests, but you must train your brain to read with accuracy.
When I tutor students for the PSAT and the SAT, I often spend as long as an hour analyzing three or four test questions. You must read as though you are a lawyer dissecting a case. You need to understand how the question is written and why the next-to-theright answer is not the right answer. I also insist that my clients know the correct definition of all of the words in the question — even if they get an answer right.
On these tests you need to think about how the prompt sets up the main arguments and the main point of the passage. What are the solid facts vs. opinions and vague assumptions? Remind yourself that you have to stay focused if you want to avoid being tricked into choosing the wrong answer. After all, your discernment is what the test is designed to determine.
While some colleges have gone test optional these tests still loom as key determinants for your eligibility in the eyes of admissions personnel. The National Merit finalist recognition will certainly enhance your profile.