PSAT helps prepare students for the real thing

Sydney Phipps, Staff Writer
November 8, 2016

The PSAT is a great tool to prepare freshmen, sophomores, and juniors for the actual SAT, an integral part of the college admissions process. Taking the PSAT helps students understand the difficulty of the actual test. Milford High school provides the PSAT to anyone that wants to take the test in October. 

“Taking the PSAT prepared me well for the SAT,” said Elise Carr, a senior. “It helped me understand the layout of the actual SAT, so that I wasn’t so nervous taking the real one for the first time.”

Many students struggle with nerves while taking the test and the free extra practice reduces anxiety when students see the layout of the test.

“The PSAT did a great job at providing feedback on my strengths and weaknesses in each field. This helped me realize what I needed to study when the actual test came around junior year,” Senior Carly Apple stated.  When students receive the results of the test, it gives them reports on the areas that were scored well on and where they struggled. 

The PSAT offers an online score report, which allows students to review each test question and see the correct answer and explanation. “This tool helped me tremendously when it came to the real test. Being able to see the explanation of the correct answer helped me understand the way the SAT scorers liked the answers,” Carr explained.

The test also provided suggestions on how to improve a student’s skills. In each section of the test (after you receive your scores) the program breaks down what you are already able to do and the next step in how to get a better score. “This feedback was very helpful to see the areas that I needed to improve on and the areas that I won’t need to study for as much,” Apple said.

“Not only is this a helpful tool to prepare for the real SAT, it also is a good chance to receive a scholarship,” Mya Zeese said. The PSAT offers many different scholarships if you do well on it. There are many advantages of taking this test, a helpful studying tool and a chance to get a scholarship.