PSAT®/SAT® FAQ
Table of Contents
General SAT
I heard that I shouldn’t guess on the SAT since incorrect answers hurt my score. Is that true?
No! You should absolutely always guess on any question that you don’t understand or if you run out of time before completing a test section. The old version of the SAT did have a “guessing penalty”, but the current version of the SAT does not. Guess, guess, guess!
Do I have to take the Colorado state-administered SAT in April?
Every April, public school juniors in Colorado (and many other states) have to take the SAT as part of mandatory state testing. This April test date is in addition to the national test dates offered in May, June, August, October, November, December, and March. Students may use their SAT scores from the state-administered SAT on their college applications.
Can I receive SAT testing accommodations for my learning difference?
Yes. The College Board is committed to ensuring that all students with documented learning disabilities receive testing accommodations. To request time accommodations, students work with their designated school SSD (Services for Students with Disabilities) Coordinator to submit their request and provide any and all required documentation.
PSAT
What is the PSAT? When do students take it?
The PSAT/NMSQT is taken by juniors in October. This test is used by the National Merit Scholarship Program (NMSP) to find eligible students for its rigorous scholarship process. While very few students will qualify for consideration for a NMSP scholarship, all students benefit from preparing for the PSAT, since it serves as a springboard to success on the SAT.
The PSAT is slightly less difficult than the SAT to account for the fact that most students take the exam well before the actual SAT. The test follows the same exact format of the SAT: it’s only slightly shorter. Also, the scoring system is a bit different than the SAT: the PSAT gives the same Evidence-Based Reading & Writing and Math scores as the SAT, but the scores for these sections are on a 160–760 scale, for a combined total score range of 320–1520.
PSAT scores can help students identify areas of strength and weakness, which better allows for narrowly tailoring an approach to their SAT prep. Furthermore, the PSAT serves as a great “dry run” for the SAT: the real thing will only be slightly longer, and students are able to experience what real testing conditions feel like.
How does the National Merit Scholarship program work?
The NMSP is an academic competition for recognition and scholarships. High school students enter the National Merit Program by taking the PSAT/NMSQT during their junior years. Approximately 1.6 million students take the PSAT/NMSQT each year. The top 50,000 scorers qualify for recognition in the NMSP. In September of their senior years, these high scorers are notified through their schools that they have qualified as either a “commended student” or a “semifinalist.” Commended students (approximately 2/3 of the high scorers, or 34,000 students) receive letters of commendation. Although commended students don’t go on to participate in the competition for National Merit scholarships, many of these students do become candidates for specific scholarships offered by corporations and businesses.
The top 1/3 (approximately 16,000) of the 50,000 high scorers are notified in September that they have qualified as NMSP semifinalists (these semifinalists are designated on a state-representational basis). The NMSP provides scholarship application materials to semifinalists though their high schools. In February, out of these semifinalists, 15,000 then advance to become finalists. Beginning in March and continuing through mid-June, the NMSP notifies approximately 7,500 finalists that they have been selected to receive a Merit Scholarship award. These awards come in three varieties: National Merit $2500 scholarships, corporate-sponsored merit scholarships, and college-sponsored scholarships. Some 400 corporations, colleges, and universities that work with the NMSP fund the corporate and college- sponsored scholarships.
SAT vs. ACT
What are the most significant differences between the SAT and ACT?
Much of the content tested on the SAT and ACT overlaps, which is why students can prepare for both tests simultaneously. For instance, the vast majority of the English and Math concepts covered on one test appear on the other. Nonetheless, there are significant differences between the two tests, which explains why in the majority of cases students will ultimately perform better on one than the other.
- Timing: In general, the ACT involves much more time pressure than the SAT. Most students will run out of time on at least one section of the ACT, often several. In fact, the ACT was designed so that timing would be a significant factor in the test’s difficulty. While many students run out of time on SAT sections (most commonly on the Math sections), students almost invariably find that ACT test sections are more difficult to complete on time than SAT test sections.
- Reading: One of the most significant differences between the ACT and SAT reading sections comes down to the timing issue discussed above. On the ACT, students have 52.5 seconds per question (not including time spent reading the passages) while on the SAT the time per question increases to 75 seconds (again, not including time spent reading the passage). Furthermore, the ACT contains many “fact-finding” questions that essentially require students to locate relevant information in the text. While these questions don’t tend to be particularly difficult for most students, they are rather time-consuming. Although the SAT does contain questions that require students to find supporting evidence in passages, these questions almost always provide four choices of line references in the answer choices themselves that student can look up and evaluate. In short, students spend very little time looking for information on the SAT and quite a bit of time doing so on the ACT. While the time pressure on the SAT is much less acute, most students find the passages and questions to be somewhat more difficult on average than on the ACT. For one, the SAT reading section includes a passage that draws from a US or global historical document (e.g., the Constitution, a speech by Abraham Lincoln, an essay by a contemporary of the French Revolution, etc. ). Since these texts are often drawn from 18th and 19th centuries, students often struggle with the language used. Furthermore, the SAT contains a Literature passage that also sometimes draws from older works of fiction (e.g., 18th and 19th centuries). All of the ACT’s reading passages are drawn from contemporary sources, so students generally find the language used to be more approachable.
- Math:
- ACT
- 1 section with 60 multiple-choice questions
- Calculator use permitted on entire section
- Slightly broader scope of concepts tested than the SAT, particularly pre-Calculus
- SAT
- 2 sections: No Calculator (20 questions) and Calculator (38 questions)
- 45 multiple-choice questions and 13 “student-produced response” questions where students must solve a question and grid in the correct answer
- Slightly heavier focus on Algebra than the ACT. Not as many pre-Calculus based questions as the ACT
- ACT