Don't Force It: How to Get into College without Losing Yourself in the Process
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Don't Force It: How to Get into College without Losing Yourself in the Process
What are some good PSAT prep tips?
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GREAT question this week! First, we unpack what the PSAT even is and whether it matters (spoiler alert: it doesn't). But it can help in understanding what your testing strategy will look like! Tune in for the nuance.
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Treat it as data. Create your testing plan off of that. And then I would say compare it to an ACT. Hey folks, welcome back. We had a great question today about the PSAT. And as you have probably come to expect, we go down a little bit of a rabbit hole before I even start answering Mackenzie's question. But I think it's really important contextualizing information that every student, every parent should know before you get all hyped up about the PSAT.
SPEAKER_00Take a listen. I kind of want to start today with reminding our listeners that I am answering a burning question that the people are asking the internet at this time. Sometimes that means that the questions themselves might have some unpacking. And I think that that might be the case with today's question. Oh boy. Okay. This week's burning question is what are PSAT prep tips? Not S A T, not S A C T. P-SA-T prep.
SPEAKER_01Okay. All right. So I think we should start with some definitions. What is the PSAT? Why is the PSAT? Is the question I usually like to answer when someone asks me that. So the PSAT is sort of a practice SAT made by the College Board, which is the company that makes the SAT. And many high schools will give a PSAT to students in 11th grade. Usually it's October of 11th grade, so it makes sense that this question is being asked now. And sometimes they let 10th graders take it. So there are younger students who can take it. No college ever sees a PSAT score. This is not how colleges evaluate students for admission, right? This is really, at its heart, a marketing tool that the college board has created to encourage students to lock into the SAT as opposed to considering the ACT, which is the other college admissions test that every four-year college in the United States accepts without bias. They don't care which one you submit. And they're just gonna hopefully look at your higher score, even if you were to submit the both of them, right? So PSAT, remember this, a marketing tool. No, no, no. Um, one of the ways that people get all kind of hyped up about the PSAT is either they think a college is gonna look at it, um, or they're really invested in the scholarship competition aspect of it. So there is a scholarship, the National Merit Scholarship, that the PSAT is the qualifying uh score for. There are other criteria that they look at, but like if you hit a certain score, it goes by state. This is like the subject of a totally other episode, but it goes by state. And if you meet the cutoff score for your state, then you're entered into the sort of the next round of that scholarship competition. There, there's an essay you have to write, and they look at other things. Um, but if you win the scholarship, it's actually not that big of a deal. It's not that much money. Um sometimes colleges will use your national merit status to award you additional merit awards, right? So in that way, it can kind of play in, but they can also give you the merit aid for your actual SAT score or your ACT score. It doesn't have to be PSAT, right? So let's all calm down about the PSAT. That said, it can be super useful. Okay. Um, it is a realistic practice test. It is a little easier and a little shorter than the real SAT, but the way they score it is on the same scoring band as the SAT. So you can say, all right, if I got a 1320 on the PSAT, if I took the SAT today, I would probably get a 1320. Okay. That's sort of how it works out. Um so you can use it as like a diagnostic tool to understand what do I need to work on, what in the experience of testing really stressed me out, how can I like prepare for that? And use it to build a prep plan for the SAT if you wanted to, because it's like aligned with that. Um, the question types are the same, you know, all of that. Um, we like to um have students do a practice SAT, usually a real SAT, not a PSAT, uh, in the summer before 11th grade. And then we have them do a practice ACT in that same time frame so that we can be comparing uh the scores and their experience kind of all in the same time frame and mindset, uh, and help them help students decide should you do the SAT or should you do the ACT or should you go test optional? Because over 90% of colleges are still test optional. There have actually been a lot of headlines this year that are trying to make it seem like, oh, colleges all want the test now. And actually, yeah, maybe a few have changed their policy, but still over 90% are test optional. So don't believe the hype around that either, people. There's a lot of hype. Um, okay, so now to the question of how do you prep for the PSAT? We've unpacked, I think, enough to get there. Um I think I think it's helpful for students to prep. They don't have to, right? If if you if a student is like not engaged in school and not going to take this seriously, or you already know they're gonna be test optional, they don't have to, right? Um, but I do think it's helpful for students to look through a PSAT, and you can get this right on the College Board website. There are a couple practice ones you can access. Um, and just see what the questions look like. Maybe try your hand at a couple of them. If you really want to try to maximize, you know, your your score there, then do a practice test under realistic timed conditions to see what that feels like. Um, and I think that is, you know, at minimum, the kind of prep I would recommend. I never recommend getting a tutor for the PSAT. Get a tutor for the SAT or the ACT by all means, but not for the PSAT, right? Um, it's just not worth the bang for your buck, right? Um, so uh there are a lot more detailed tips that I could get into, but I'll pause here and see what you what you're curious about, Mackenzie.
SPEAKER_00Um so you said that you know a lot of schools offer this, the PSAT to their 11th graders, um, sometimes 10th graders. If a student school does not offer the PSAT, should they seek one or should they just go without?
SPEAKER_01It's a great question. Um I think every student should do a little diagnostic work to figure out their testing plan for their college applications, even if they think they're a terrible test taker. Sometimes that message has come from somewhere else and is not related to the data of like how they actually do on tests. And so this can be a nice reality check of, and you can get a practice test on the College Board website, you can get a practice ACT on the ACT website. Um, so this is free. Nobody should be charging you for this. Um, you know, take a practice test and see how you do. Um, because you might find, oh, this wasn't so bad, or actually, I'm really good at this one section. Maybe it makes it worth it to like put in the effort to bring up the other section. Um, or maybe your worst fears are confirmed. And that way no one can tell you, oh, it's all in your head. You can be like, no, look, I did really poorly on this test, and you've got evidence of then we know for sure you're gonna go without test scores, and we should only be looking at schools that are test optional. Um so I don't think they need to like go to great lengths to try to get into a PSAT administration, right? Is like being offered by some other school and you gotta get into it. Like, no, don't do that. Just download an SAT from the from the website and and do that. Um, and and that's plenty.
SPEAKER_00And is there a reason why the PSAT is typically a little bit easier than a standard SAT?
SPEAKER_01Well, the SAT's reasoning for this uh is that uh they expect students to be taking an SAT towards the end of their junior year or maybe sometime in senior year. So the PSAT being so early, there's just sort of like, well, maybe you haven't had this material yet. Some content gaps. Um you know, I'm sure somebody who's done more detailed analysis than me can say exactly where it's easier. Um I wouldn't be able to tell you that off the top of my head. But um, when when they um when they redesigned the SAT most recently, they rescaled the PSAT to match the SAT. So there's a lot of like, you know, their psychometricians and test developers have like written a lot of validation studies around this, and you can go and look at that if you want to. I wasn't really interested in digging into all those details.
SPEAKER_00Thank you. Yeah. That's interesting. Do you have specific prep tips, even about like the day of the PSAT? What should you say? Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, actually, I think that's really um smart for us to talk about here. Um, because you know what you know, right? Like I don't want you to go uh around trying to learn everything for the PSAT, right? If it aligns with your SAT prep, then by all means, yes, go do that. But um no need to like teach yourself new math or you know memorize um literary passages in case they come up on the reading section. Like, you know, you don't need to do any of that. But the things you you can absolutely do that are just smart test taking behaviors that you can use for the SAT or the ACT or even the math test at school next week are these sorts of things around testing, um, like getting good sleep, fueling your body with a protein forward breakfast on the morning of the test. Um, understanding the timing of the test, right? And you're gonna have a break, preparing a snack for that break, right? Um, drinking water, uh, those sorts of things. Working on things that can help you feel more confident, right? So the sort of behavioral tips that I give my students, it depends, of course, on the student and what they struggle with, but I always want them to do something fun in the morning of the test, right? Um, and I'm not saying go to an amusement park or whatever, but like something small that makes you laugh, right? Like if there is a funny video on YouTube that you know every time you see it, you just like can't stop laughing. Go watch that video while you're eating breakfast, right? Because laughter releases endorphins and that's gonna make you feel great. And that's what we want. You feeling your best at the test, right? Um if um if some small amount of exercise helps you have those endorphins, that's great. I don't want people doing like a full press workout because you will get tired and you might still be testing when that happens. So like don't stress yourself out. But other things like, you know, don't try a new medication right before the test. Because if you don't know how it's gonna affect you, like this could really be not pleasant. Um, don't, you know, do something really adventurous in the week before the I had a student a couple years ago who broke their wrist two days before their test. And I was like, oh no, what do we do?
SPEAKER_00Oh no.
SPEAKER_01So, you know, keep it, keep it safe, stay within your comfort zone, don't try new things. Um, you know, don't get into a fight with your best friend or your parents. And I know you can't always control that, but just keep it peaceful, you know, um, because those sorts of stresses will distract you or um impede you from demonstrating what you do really know. And yeah, to do well on these tests, you do have to be focused, you have to have attention to detail, and you have to have some confidence that you know the things that you do actually know, right? Um, so those are the kinds of things you can do. And and um to plan something fun for after, if you have something to look forward to, is really nice.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for sure. And if a student receives, well, I guess let me back up for a second here. When should students expect to receive their PSAT scores?
SPEAKER_01Um, usually now that it's all digital, usually it's sometime in November. Um there are sometimes like scoring aberrations and they're like, your score is delayed. Unfortunately, that does happen. Um, but you should have it sometime in November.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Yeah. But if a student scores wildly below what they were expecting to score, should they be disappointed or, you know, torn up about it?
SPEAKER_01I mean, here's here's I'm glad we're talking about this now before the PSAT happens. This is just data. Right? We don't have to get emotionally attached to the results because it doesn't matter for college admissions. We're taking a temperature of where you are right now so that you can use that information to prepare for the test you're actually gonna take for college admissions, if you are gonna take a test for college admissions, right? So let's talk through the scenarios. If you score so far below what you thought you were gonna score, wherever that idea came from, if you did a practice test and you scored pretty well and then the real test, not so great, or you just, I don't know, you're a 4.0 student, so you expect to ace this thing and then you didn't. Um don't try not to be disappointed, right? You are so much more than a number, and colleges know that. Uh, and that's why we most colleges have like this holistic process where they're looking at essays and recommendations and all the other things, right? It's not all just based on a test score. So remember that, but but also let's learn what we can about it, right? If there is a big difference between when you did a practice test and your actual test score, well, what changed? Was it something about the testing environment, something happening the day or the week of that practice test or the actual test? Uh was it something in um the test itself? Were you like, wow, these questions just felt so much harder than what I saw on the practice test? Or if they felt so much easier. Sometimes students get overconfident and they rush and they don't do the things like checking their, you know, scratch work or even writing out scratch work for math. Oh my god, the amount of people who try to just do everything in their head. I'm like, no, this is dangerous. Um the um uh I I forget what I was saying about whether the material it was harder or not, but like it, you know, when it's when you encounter the real test, sometimes you just do the work differently. And we can't always explain why, right? Um, but the more you can kind of think about what changed, the more information you'll have about what do I need to try to control. Right. Like if you didn't eat breakfast on the morning of the real test, but you did on your practice test, well, eat breakfast, please, you know? Um, or um I tell my I was telling a student yesterday this we want to make sure we prevent as many things from going wrong as we can, right? And you're not ever really thinking about those things, but like weird things happen. So when I went to take my GRE to go to grad school when I was applying for my master's programs, I my testing center was literally like four blocks away. I was living in Manhattan, it was four blocks away. I was like, this is great. I'm just gonna walk. I don't have to worry about traffic or when the train's coming or hailing a cab or whatever. This was before Uber because it was a really long time ago. Um, and I was drinking my coffee and I don't know what happened, but I dropped my coffee mug straight onto my big toe. It shattered, my toe was bleeding, hot coffee all over me and all over the floor. And I'm like, I need to, I what? I don't even know what to do. So I left the mess on the floor. I tried to bandage up my foot, and I literally like hobbled my way to the testing center. And yeah, I didn't do as well as I had been doing in my practice. So, you know, prepare your environment, plan ahead, whatever you can do to control those things. But yeah, don't be disappointed. It's just information and it's early yet in your junior year if you're taking this PSAT, and and you have time to learn from the experience, prepare for the experience, study what you need to study, do a whole bunch more practice tests, and then you know, hopefully show your best performance on a later test date.
SPEAKER_00And I think that reminded me of something. Um my little cousin just to took the enhanced ACT last sprint and brought a computer with 25% battery to the test day. And it died on him in the middle of testing. So if you are bringing your own computer or your own device to take these exams, I'm not sure if schools provide their own laptops for for students for the PSAT, make sure they're charged too, I imagine.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, or you bring a charger, another layer of the exactly. Well, which reminds me of another tip. The PSAT, because it is digital, has the Desmos calendar calculator built in. Now that thing is powerful, but you have to know how to use it. So if you are trying to do a little PSAT prep, learn how to use Desmos. That'll really help you in the map section. That's a really good point. Yeah, there are a bunch of tutorials online that you can find. I think your your instinct to ask what like what happens when you get the scores back. I think that's that's a really good one to follow. Um, so treat it as data, create your testing plan off of that. And and then I would say compare it to an ACT.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Right. While you're waiting for your PSAT scores, you could do a practice ACT.
SPEAKER_00Right.
SPEAKER_01And then if you Google official concordance SAT ACT, you'll find it. There's one on the College Board website, and the same information is is also on the ACT website, and you can just use it to see, okay, I scored here on math in my ACT, that converts to this on the SAT, right? If your ACT predicts that you would have scored higher on the SAT, but you didn't, then the ACT is a better fit for you. But if your SAT scores are relatively stronger than your ACT scores, you know, stick with the SAT. Um, and it will also allow you because the SAT is only given digitally, you could do a paper ACT, and that will allow you to determine not only which test format might be better for you, but also which medium, right? Am I better on a computer screen or on a paper test, right? Um, and so that's that's a really useful thing. And I know we've got plenty of articles and webinars on our website that talk about how do you interpret these results and make a plan based on them? Um, that's also something that most testing companies will do for free. They'll give you a practice test of each and then do a comparison. It often comes with a recommendation of you should do 40 hours of test prep with us, you know. Um, so just be prepared for that, but they'll give you the analysis.
SPEAKER_00Okay. And now, do as many schools offer the PACT as they do the PSAT?
SPEAKER_01Not as many, um, but uh many do. And they often do the PACT at the end of 10th grade. So PACT is like the pre-ACT. Um uh and they often do it at the end of 10th grade, which I think is the right timing. I wish the PSAT was at the end of 10th grade, because then you could do all of this sort of prep work over the summer and get your testing done in junior fall and then focus on junior year, which is going to be your hardest year yet. Don't try to cram in SAT prep when you're maybe leading clubs for the first time or taking your first APs and like everything is just so hard. Um, so if you're younger than a junior, think about that. Like you can, you don't have to wait for the PSAT. You could just go get a practice test and do it. So the pre-ACT is often given in 10th grade. And yeah, not as many high schools do it. And the reason for that is a business reason, not because colleges don't like the ACT or high schools don't like the ACT. Let me pull back the curtain a little bit for our listeners. These companies, the ACT, the company that runs the ACT, and then the uh college board, um, are competing for market share. Right? Just like Coca-Cola and Pepsi. Uh, if you're Gen X, my generation, like there were Cola Wars, okay? Um, I don't know if they're as intense as they were back then, but it was really intense. So ACT SAT are competing for students to take their tests. And one of the ways that they take this competition out of the hands of students is that they go to the state level. So the College Board, when it redesigned in 2016, made a really aggressive push to get more state contracts. And but, you know, a little history lesson here. This is when common core was a thing. Uh, if any listeners know that, like uh this sort of new curriculum that was going to be standardized uh, you know, across a lot of school districts and and states. Um, and the SAT wanted to be the capstone exam for the common core. And it's no coincidence that the architect of the common core became the CEO of the SA of the College Board. Okay, like this is not a coincidence. Um, he was like, Oh, this is an opportunity now that I'm CEO of the SAT of the College Board. Sorry, here's an opportunity. Right. So um using that kind of logic, David Coleman and the college board were able to secure a lot of state contracts, which means every school district in the state was already paying the college board to have the PSAT in schools, to have a school day administration of the SAT, to have, you know, all sorts of other things that come along with, you know, AP curriculum and all these things that come along with being kind of members of the College Board, really clients of the College Board. And, you know, I'll give you the example. I grew up in Michigan. We were in ACT state while I was growing up. Very few students were taking the SAT in Michigan when I was growing up. We were all taking the ACT. It was just what everybody talked about, it was what was in schools. Um, you know, talent competitions used the ACT as opposed to the SAT to identify gifted students, you know, all that stuff. And then in 2016, Michigan became an SAT state. Right? It's just a territory grab to get more students in their pipelines. And the reason for that, even though the college board is technically a nonprofit, just to really tell you what's going on here. I'm sure so many listeners have tuned out by now, but this is the real juicy stuff. Um, College Board makes so much money every year. CEO takes home more than I think it's $2 million, $3 million he took home last year. It's all in their reporting, you can see it. But um yeah, they make a lot of money. And it's not just from exam registration fees, it's from selling things like AP curriculum to school districts and and selling student information to colleges and uh summer camps and other kinds of educational programs. They have a list of like they won't sell that information to a test prep company, for example, right? But they will sell it to a summer program that you know is on a college campus or whatever, right? Because all of those companies want students. They want to recruit these students, they want to market to these students, and they need the names and they want to know who is scoring at what kind of range and um who lives in what zip code and what do their parents do, and like it is marketing data, right? And very valuable, and they they sell it, and so does the ACT. The ACT is not above that. So just so you know, what's really motivating this? It's not about this is the best testing assessment to see how well students are prepared for college. It's here's a hoop we can make students jump through that all parents think is necessary, that really benefits this profit-seeking corporation. And most colleges will tell you there's been a lot of research on this, adding a test score into the rest of the holistic admissions evaluation doesn't actually increase the um predictive ability uh of like whether that student is going to be able to succeed at that college by a significant factor, right? GPA does a really good job of that. As a matter of fact, family wealth does a very good job of that. The SAT or the ACT score really just confirm what those things are already saying, because in essence, the SAT is also, or ACT, I don't want to let them off the hook. Those test scores are really a proxy for family wealth. Right. Um, it's a whole sorted shadowy backstory to all of these things. So I really I like telling people about it. Number one, it's juicy and kind of fun to talk about. But number two, it helps them see. Oh, I don't have to fall for this, right? If you take the test, use it to your benefit to see how you're doing uh and plan ahead. If you are going to take a test, plan ahead for your prep, but don't let it feel like it defines what's possible for you, or if you do poorly, college is not on the horizon. Like that is all irrelevant to what that test score actually means. Um, and knowing that there are ulterior motives uh for having students test or for states signing on for tests, or you know, any of that. Even the redesign of these tests, they're competing with each other, right? The ACT got bought by a private equity firm last year or the year before. And the first thing they did was like, well, we have to make it the same length as the SAT. And they just chopped it up with really very little intentionality. Um, and it's the rollout has been a mess because of it, but they're just trying to compete with the SAT. Um, and so unfortunately, students and families are sort of caught in the crossfire of these testing wars.
SPEAKER_00It's all about the money. Oh, it is. Wow. No, I do think it's really important that our listeners know that. Um it gives you a little grounding in case you do get caught up in the whirlpool of the score.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I know. Now that's a real bummer to end on. I know. Sorry, guys. We live in late stage capitalism. If you dig far enough under almost anything, you're gonna get to this kind of story.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01This is where it ends up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01But you know, we also don't have to take it. There are organizations like fair test.org is one of my favorites. I know, I know the people who work there very well. I have a lot of respect and admiration for the work that they do. And it's very data-driven. And they keep a great list of test optional schools. They're monitoring these policies, they're advocating for families and students. Um, they work directly with institutions to use assessments fairly. Uh, so they're doing great work around that. Lots of people talk about this. Um, and uh, you know, there are a lot of groups that are advocating for for um for student rights, frankly, in the face of these sort of behemoth institutions. So we can we can uh join them in their in their movements and hopefully change all of this.