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Your PSAT scores are in! Now what? In our latest post, we answer students’ top questions about PSAT scores, from understanding the scoring breakdown to using results for SAT or ACT prep. Discover insights on National Merit recognition and learn practical ways to turn your PSAT baseline into meaningful progress.
For many students, taking the PSAT is the first step on their testing journey. It’s an exciting time, but understandably an anxious and uncertain one as well. When scores get released in late October or mid-November, a plethora of questions inevitably crop up. What do my scores mean? How can I improve my score? Where do I go from here? Should I take the ACT or SAT? The road ahead can sometimes feel overwhelming, but rest assured that ESM Prep has you covered!
The short answer here is no; colleges do not consider your PSAT scores when determining who they admit into their classes. However, if you took the test as an 11th-grader, your PSAT score is used to determine if you qualify for National Merit Scholarship recognition. Each year, only a very small percentage of students who take the test qualify for this competition, but if you are one of the lucky 50,000 who receive some recognition, you may want to consider including this information in your college application.
The PSAT exam models the structure and feel of the SAT: it comes in the same digital and adaptive format, tests very similar content, and has the same timing and number of questions as the SAT. The one key difference is in the scoring scale. While the SAT Math and Reading & Writing sections are scored on the familiar 200-800 scale, a PSAT section score ranges from 160-760, which means that the set of possible PSAT scores range from a minimum of 320 up to a maximum of 1520.
Why the difference in score ranges? The PSAT is taken by a younger group of students than the population who take the SAT. The College Board designed the PSAT to reflect this difference, and so it is just slightly easier, with a few easier questions swapped in to replace some of the most difficult questions that could appear on the SAT.
PSAT and SAT exam scores are vertically aligned. This means that if you scored a particular score on the PSAT one day, you would likely score very similarly (if not exactly the same) on the SAT, assuming you took it on the same day.
Does this mean your PSAT score predicts how you will eventually score on the SAT? No, your score only reflects your mastery of the test’s content at one moment in time, so it should just be treated as your starting point or as a baseline. Where a student begins on their testing journey is vastly different from where they end up because there is a lot of progress that can be made in the upcoming year!
If you provided your cell phone number when you took the PSAT, you can view your scores when they are ready by using the College Board’s BigFuture School Mobile app. You should receive a notification on the day your score report is available. Alternatively, your school can provide you with a PDF of your score report when it is ready. Additional details and insights can also be found in your personal College Board account.
The app will show your total score in the top line, with your two individual section scores (one for Reading & Writing, and one for Math) appearing directly below. You can also view percentile comparisons, which show the percentage of students in your grade level who scored the same or lower than you.
The PDF version of your report, as well as the report you would see in your College Board account, will provide a bit of additional nuance to contextualize your scores. The PDF report will include more score comparisons and will provide you the average PSAT score for students at your school, district, state, country, as well as the average score of all takers worldwide.
Your PDF report should also break down your performance in each section across four broader content areas, so you can get a sense of your relative strengths and weaknesses across the test. Unfortunately, the score report will not provide you with the number of questions you missed in each area or even a breakdown of what types of questions you are missing; it is only meant to give you a sense of your ability in what the College Board terms “performance score bands”. For each skill, there are 7 such bands. If, for example, you notice your performance is classified as 5 bars under the Algebra skill score, it does not necessarily mean you answered 5/7 of the Algebra questions correctly. Instead, a 5/7 estimates your level of proficiency in this area around a score range of 550-600.
The score bands are based on the College Board’s Skill Insight tool, which will tell you what skill students in your score band are typically likely to demonstrate. It will also provide you sample questions that students at your level typically score correctly. You can also use this tool to explore questions in the next score band, which are the best set of questions to target for growth and improvement.
Don’t let these performance bands intimidate you! Look to your lowest performance areas and identify those as target areas for growth. These are typically the easiest scores to improve with additional practice and prep. However, do not ignore your higher performance areas! Even if you got all 7 bars in a particular area, it does not necessarily mean you are acing every question here either. You at least should strive to maintain your skill in this area through additional practice as well.
If you are an 11th grader who took the PSAT and a U.S. citizen, you could qualify for entry into the National Merit Scholarship Program. Your report should include your NMSC Selection Index score, which is used to determine if you will be recognized as a commended student (awarded to 34,000 students annually) or a National Merit semifinalist (awarded to 16,000 students annually).
The cutoff index score to move on and receive commendation or semifinalist status is different in each state, and is dependent on overall student performance each year, so it can vary from year to year. For this reason, It is impossible to predict what the minimum selection index score will be. Selection index qualifying scores for each state are typically released later in the fall following the PSAT administration.
Your PSAT score provides a baseline score for your current performance on the SAT. However, if you have never taken the ACT before, you might be curious to see if you fare better on this test. For this reason, the upcoming fall and winter season of junior year is the perfect time to sit down for a full practice ACT test to get a similar baseline score. Once you have your result, you can use the concordance table to compare the scores.
Not too surprisingly, most students end up with roughly concordant scores on the two tests. For example, a student scoring an 1170 on a PSAT may very likely score a 24 on the ACT, showing no strong preference for a particular test. However, there are always exceptions to the rule, and some students do show a strong scoring preference for one test. If this is you, it makes your decision on which test to take easy!
If you score roughly the same on both tests, however, the best test for you is really just the one you personally prefer. Make your choice soon, so you can begin focusing exclusively on one test and start practicing and improving.
To learn more about how you can use your PSAT results to prep for your best score on the SAT or ACT, reach out to Client Services to discuss your students test prep plans.
