October PSAT scores are now available to students. Here are a couple of notes and recommendations for how to use and interpret the scores.
Remember that each section is scored out of 760, and not 800. The highest possible score is 1520. This means your student’s PSAT score will be slightly and artificially lower than his/her SAT score.
For feedback on your PSAT results, link your College Board Account to Khan Academy (it’s free). Click here for directions for how to link these accounts. Once you have sent your PSAT results to Khan Academy, Khan’s SAT platform will generate personalized study recommendations based on the questions missed.
The National Merit Index is calculated differently than the PSAT score. For National Merit, three scores are used – reading, writing and language, and math. Each of these three scores is out of 38. These three scores are then added up and the result is doubled to create the index, which is out of 228. While the cutoff index score for National Merit varies from state to state, this year in MA the cut score looks to be between 220 and 223.
Not sure what the scores mean? Whether your student should take the SAT or the ACT or both? Want an expert to review the report with you? Give us a call or send us an email. This is a confusing process and we are here to help.