PSAT 2019 is approaching on Wednesday, Oct. 30, on Wednesday. The PSAT is an abbreviation for Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test and National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Like it is stated, the PSAT helps students to get a national scholarship based on their results. The scores range from 320 to 1520 and the average score for PSAT is around 920.

The PSAT is divided into four sections: evidence-based reading, writing, math with and without a calculator, and no essay portion. It is a timed test, and the total time given is 2 hours and 45 minutes. The first section, evidence-based reading, is 60 minutes with 47 questions. The second section is writing, with 35 minutes and 44 questions. The third section, math without a calculator, is 25 minutes, and the last section is math with the calculator with the calculator for 45 minutes. The total number of questions for the math portion is 47 questions

“Students working on the SAT practice questions on the Khan Academy will help students to maximize their score on the PSAT. The important thing is to try your best and really read the answer explanations,” AVID teacher Dan Nguyen said. “I would recommend writing down the summary of how to solve a problem you got wrong after reading the explanation.” 

The Khan Academy, with the College Board, provides the practice test questions that will help students who are studying for the SAT. Spending more and more time on that practice questions will definitely help improve scores because the Khan Academy provides thorough feedback on the answers.

“The studies showed that 20 hours of practice on Khan Academy’s SAT prep leads to average score increase of 115 points.” Mr.Nguyen added.

Each section requires the thorough understanding of the topics. Some questions may be time-consuming, hard questions. Because this is a timed test, it’s best to just pass those questions, work on other questions first and then come back to the hard questions. Because there is no minus if the question is missed, so even if you couldn’t finish all the questions, guessing the unsolved questions may help increase the score. 

“Knowing what you got wrong and knowing the reason for the correct answer is the way of getting a high score,” the SAT helper, Bokhee Chun said. “But working on a lot of problems are the best way to increase the score.” She has been working with the students for more than 20 years now, and helped many students reach their goal. 

The large percentage of missed questions are because students didn’t read the questions carefully. Many students were rushed at the end, missing the part of the questions. So it is important to practice the practice questions with the time limits before the actual test.