psat practice?
Perhaps the first most important test of a student's high school
life is the PSAT. Not only does it supposedly prepare the student
for the real game, the SAT, but it also carries a great deal of
notoriety in and of itself. For one, there are many scholarships
associated with the PSAT itself, as well as many opportunities that
will open immediately if a student attains a top score on this
test. Many academic institutions use the PSAT as well as the SAT to
choose who to begin courting for inclusion into their programs. As
such, the PSAT should definitely not be taken lightly, and
actually, even though the P in PSAT stands for "practice," the PSAT
itself deserves a great deal of practice before actually being
taken by the student as well.
As the PSAT is essentially a shorter and easier version of the
SAT, it is actually appropriate to study for the PSAT using SAT
materials. The increased difficulty of the SAT will serve as an
"ankle weight" does to a runner - once the weight is removed, the
legs seem even more limber because of the added pressure and more
difficult practice. Also, having the student take the much longer
SAT will prepare him or her for the shorter PSAT as long as the
guide or tutor informs the student fully of the technique that is
being employed. The tutor should tell the student to check back
over his or her answers with the extra time that he or she will
have.
As with the SAT, the PSAT math section is arranged in order of
easiest question to most difficult question. What this means is
that the student should not skip questions when it comes to the
math section, and the student should also begin checking over his
or her answers from the very beginning so as to clear out the easy
mistakes from the earlier questions. Because an easy question and a
difficult question are worth the same amount of points, trying to
answer a hard question instead of three easier, earlier questions
will result in a lower score.
The English section of the PSAT should be studied like a book
report. The questions that are asked on the PSAT will mostly
require the student to interpret passages. Also, vocabulary lists
should be incorporated into the practice sessions at each meeting,
with the intention of expanding the student's vocabulary each
time.