PSAT vs sat scores

[Anonymous]

My kid is a rising junior and is using time this summer to prep for the SAT. I've been pleasantly surprised with how she's done on the official practice tests. To the point where I wonder if she might be NMSQT competitive. But I'm also a little hung up on the difference in scoring. Would you expect a PSAT score to be higher (the test is easier?) or lower (the ceiling is lower)? She's hitting close to 1500 on her first few practice tests, so she's right at the cusp where this is relevant.

[Anonymous]

SAT should be higher than PSAT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:SAT should be higher than PSAT.

OP here. Do you have any reasoning about that? I know that's the case if you take the PSAT first, but that's clearly due to practice and increased learning. But what about taking the PsAT after or a one to one comparison. That's what I'm trying to figure out.

[Anonymous]

My kid got a 1500 on the PSAT 10 and a 1510 on their first practice SAT.

[Anonymous]

Sat is usually higher. Also the max on psat is like 1540. Sat is up to 1600.

DD got 1150 on PSAT and 1200 on SAT, taken a year apart and with no study for either.

[Anonymous]

The full score for psat is 1520. The full score for SAT is 1600. Assuming your DC performs equally well under two tests, naturally your DC's psat score will be lower than her SAT score.

For psat, look up the NMSF cutoff in your state. Try to get that NMSF if possible. USC merit scholarship is at least partially based on NMSF.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:SAT should be higher than PSAT.

OP here. Do you have any reasoning about that? I know that's the case if you take the PSAT first, but that's clearly due to practice and increased learning. But what about taking the PsAT after or a one to one comparison. That's what I'm trying to figure out.

NP. The tests are designed by College Board to approximate each other, in theory, even though PSAT has a lower ceiling. Due to the lower ceiling, the approximation doesn't work out very neatly at the high end of the scoring range.

However, scoring for the digital test seems more inconsistent than for the paper one. My kid took the digital got a 1560 on the August junior year SAT and then a 1430 on the October PSAT. My other kid took the paper test and got a 1550 on the August junior year SAT and a 1480 on the October PSAT.

Others may find they do better on the PSAT than the SAT even taken around the same time.

You are doing the right thing by prepping for a fall SAT now. The prep will also work for the PSAT.

Among the official digital practice tests, the lower numbered tests are easier than the higher numbered ones. Tests 4-6 are the closest approximation of the real digital test. Caveat, I can't speak to the difficulty or scoring of the more recently-released digital tests.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The full score for psat is 1520. The full score for SAT is 1600. Assuming your DC performs equally well under two tests, naturally your DC's psat score will be lower than her SAT score.

For psat, look up the NMSF cutoff in your state. Try to get that NMSF if possible. USC merit scholarship is at least partially based on NMSF.

USC offers a specific scholarship for NMSF. They lowered it this past admission season to only 20k per year.

[Anonymous]

Keep in mind what really matters is your sat score, not psat. A high sat score without nmsf would not hurt your application. A high sat score in combination with nmsf shows consistency. But the value add by nmsf is minimal except for merit scholarship consideration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Keep in mind what really matters is your sat score, not psat. A high sat score without nmsf would not hurt your application. A high sat score in combination with nmsf shows consistency. But the value add by nmsf is minimal except for merit scholarship consideration.

^ However, if you are rural, that nmsf may worth a lot more in your application. In DMC, nah.

[Anonymous]

There are conversation charts for this:
https://blog.collegevine.com/psat-to-sat-score-conversion-predict-your-score#score-conversion-chart

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There are conversation charts for this:
https://blog.collegevine.com/psat-to-sat-score-conversion-predict-your-score#score-conversion-chart

The "official concordance table" referred to in the blog post was for an old-old version of the PSAT and SAT system, prior to the overhaul in 2016. It is completely unrelated to the current testing system.

[Anonymous]

"Using SAT Scores to Understand Scores on Other Assessments

The SAT Suite—from the PSAT 8/9 through the SAT—uses a common score scale for the total and section scores. The
ranges reported for each assessment reflect grade-level appropriateness within the common score scale.

This common score scale means that a student who took the SAT and received a Math section score of 500 would be expected to also get a 500 on the PSAT/NMSQT, PSAT 10, or PSAT 8/9 if they had taken any of those tests on that same day; a score of 500 represents the same level of academic achievement on all 4 assessments.

This also means that student growth across the SAT Suite is easy to determine. If a student took the PSAT/NMSQT or PSAT 10 last year and received a 500 Math section score, then took the SAT this year and earned a 550 Math section score, that student has shown a growth of 50 points, which likely resulted from hard work both in and out of school."

https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/sat-understanding-scores.pdf

[Anonymous]

You'll find out soon enough, OP. So chill out.

One of my kids was a commended scholar because of her score on the PSAT. Not NMSF, but close. She only scored in the low 1300s on the actual SAT.

My other kid bombed the PSAT and scored in the high 1400s on the SAT.

So, in our family at least, no real correlation.

[Anonymous]

I have a NMF, got 1500 on both. A 1500 on PSAT is a better score then a 1500 SAT but his SAT was strong enough to qualify him for NMF.