College 101
Why Should I Care About the PSAT? Article Type: Quick and Dirty
The best thing about the PSAT® is that the pressure's totally off. It's called the "Preliminary SAT" for a reason. Nobody's expected to know everything on it yet, but you should probably forgo spelling out YOLO with your Scantron bubbles.
Why the PSAT Matters
Between homework, extracurricular activities, babysitting, community service, hanging out with friends, and attempting to increase likes per minute rates on Instagram, it's a miracle that anyone has time to breathe anymore, let alone leave the house fully clothed every morning.
It seems crazy to spend those precious few hours of free time volunteering to take a test that doesn't count toward anything, but there are quite a few good reasons to do so.
1. It's practice for the SAT®.
Wouldn't it be great if life came with a crystal ball? People would know the exact moment a crush was going to ask if they had plans this weekend, allowing time to rehearse a more eloquent response than, "No! I'm totally free, but not because I don't have a social life or anything. I'm actually super busy, but I could move things around, you know, if I had a reason. I don't know. Why do you ask?"
The PSAT won't help anyone get a date, but it does act as a crystal ball for another big high school life event: the SAT. The College Board redesigned both exams in "tight alignment," meaning the PSAT covers the same content as the SAT and provides a preview of the question types to expect. Seriously, it's the exact same content. We wouldn't joke about something this important.
To sweeten the deal, the College Board is creating personalized SAT study plans for anyone who takes the PSAT. Scoring high on the algebra questions but struggling with geometry creates a study plan that breezes through solving for x and focuses on finding the volume of a sphere. Of course, the College Board isn't exactly known for its sparkling wit, so we at Shmoop also have a complete SAT prep course, guaranteed to provide dozens of comical pop culture references and geeky puns.
2. You can win cash money.
We're not talking about jet planes, islands, tigers on a gold leash levels of money, but strong PSAT scores could put students in the running for several college scholarships.
In fact, the "NMSQT" part of PSAT/NMSQT stands for "National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test." Unlike other scholarship competitions, the National Merit Scholarship doesn't require six million hours of community service or a personal essay on how much we love milk or that time we rescued four kittens in a tree with a revolutionary branch-removal tool we invented.
Scores on the PSAT/NMSQT are automatically submitted for scholarship consideration as long as students answer a few extra identification questions, such as "Are you enrolled in high school?" and "Are you a citizen of the United States?" Check yes or no and move on.
The National Merit Scholarship program is one of the most widely known awards for high school students, so even the sheer honor of being a finalist or a semifinalist is impressive to college recruiters—actually winning some money to help pay for college when you get there is the icing on the cake.
3. It can guide you toward a better high school experience.
The PSAT helps squeeze every last possible drop of scholarly goodness out of students' remaining time in high school, whether that's one year or all four. If earning college credits before graduation sounds like fun, PSAT scores can help guidance counselors recommend the best AP courses to take.
Elvis, on learning he earned a college credit for acing AP U.S. History.
See? There's one of those "pop culture" references we promised! (Source)
The PSAT also provides a clear picture of a student's academic strengths and weaknesses, which means an opportunity to sharpen skills before leaving the safe nest of high school and flying solo in college or a career.
You're already here, though, so we probably don't need to convince you that taking the PSAT is a good idea, you smart cookie, you.
PSAT/NMSQT is a registered trademark of the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation, which were not involved in the production of, and do not endorse, this product.
SAT is a registered trademark of the College Board, which was not involved in the production of, and does not endorse, this product.