Potential Magazine august 2013 | Page 16

college 101 life skills tips & advice life skills trends standardized tests resources scholarships PSAT: Not a Pre-Test parent to parent Confused about the PSAT? We’ve got some answers to common questions and info on why your teen should take this particular “practice” test seriously. By Jasmine York Many think the “P” in PSAT stands for Pretest. While it is not used for admissions, the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test is a standardized test administered by the College Board and National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC). But unlike most “pre-tests” that serve as practice material to prepare students for the real exam, the PSAT is much more. Students who score high enough on the PSAT are entered in a competition for a scholarship from the National Merit Scholarship Program along with lucrative corporation and college scholarship packages. How is it different from SAT & ACT? The PSAT can only be taken once per school year. Students who are sophomores or younger are allowed to take the test, but to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship, students must take this test as a junior. Unlike the SAT, it does not contain Algebra II problems or an essay. How is it administered? Unlike other standardized exams, registration for the PSAT is done at your teen’s high school, and the test is taken every October during regular school hours at participating high schools. What if my child is homeschooled? Contact a nearby school offering the PSAT/ NMSQT and request to take the test there. There is no online registration process. Registration must be done at a participating high school. How much does it cost? The test is offered at a fraction of the cost of other standardized tests. There is a $14 fee per student tested. In some cases, schools may charge an additional fee to cover administrative costs. The College Board offers fee waivers to juniors who come from a low-income family and demonstrate financial need. These waivers are given out to juniors through the request of school administrators and are allotted on a firstcome, first-served basis. So, what’s on the test? The PSAT is broken into five sections: two Critical Reading, two Math and one Writing section. The Official Student Guide to the PSAT/NMSQT offers reviews to aid in preparation and can be picked up from your teen’s guidance office in September. Practice tests are also available online. How are the scores used? The National Merit Scholarship Corporation receives all the scores. Each section of the test is scored between 20-80 with an overall score ranging from 60 to 240. The selection for the scholarship is based on how well the students do in comparison to peers in their region. Each state has a specific PSAT Selection Index, which is used in part to qualify students for the National Merit Scholarship. Alabama’s qualifying score for 2013 is currently 209. NO GENIUS REQUIRED Jean Burk, author of “College Prep Genius,” is a nationally known expert on PSAT/SAT testing and has been featured on FOX, CBS and NBC. She believes that preparation is the key. “The SAT doesn’t test how smart your kids are, nor does it examine how much they learn in school. Kids with 4.0 GPAs can bomb this test! Why does this happen? Because the SAT mainly tests your ability to take the SAT. The good news is that this test is ‘standardized,’ which means that when writing the test questions, the test-makers follow the same patterns, profiles and standards by writing similar questions each time; this tests the same skills in exactly the same way without being literally the same questions. Students can then obviously learn these hidden recurring patterns found on the test and become very test savvy.” SCORE BIG FINANCIALLY How can your teen earn $75,000 before age 18? Study for the PSAT. Also known as the National Merit Scholarship Test, it is the golden ticket for students scoring in the upper 2-5 percent. Universities seek out these high scorers and pursue them with lucrative scholarship offers since these students bolster their national rankings. Before you say, “My kid could never score high enough,” consider this: Studying 150 additional hours could mean a boost to your teen’s score that would be equivalent to Watch for $500/hour. “How to Raise Your Teen’s PSAT Score” in To earn the same amount at a our next issue. typical minimum wage teen job, they’d have to work over 10,000 hours. 16 www.potentialmagazine.com