Juniors and sophomores tackled the new PSAT Oct. 14. Formatting and difficulty levels changed as College Board adopted a more practical version of the standardized test.

“I feel like it’s advantageous to us because it’s easier,” sophomore Riti Srivastava said. “The reading seem less challenging.”

Instead of requiring a vast vocabulary capacity and memory of minute details, the new PSAT focuses on the broader meaning. Test takers are required to look at several lines and determine the overall meaning of those lines. The reading test is 60 minutes with 47 questions, a challenge due to lack of specific mental breaks.

“I heard the writing is more enjoyable,” sophomore Vicki Shon said. “There are no more sentence error identification questions.”

The new PSAT includes underlines over specific areas of text in a passage. Students then choose whether there is a more appropriate alternative and chooses their choice to replace the underlined portion. The previous PSAT included tricky questions that required students to identify minor grammatical errors and had some questions which did not have any errors. The writing portion is 35 minutes and 44 questions.

“I don’t like the fact that the math is harder,” Srivastava said. “It’ll take longer and we won’t have as much time to check over our work.”

For countless students, math was the easiest section out of the three. However, those who have experience with the new version admit that math may now be the most difficult. The math section now includes up to precalculus when previously the test covered material up to Algebra 2. More word problems and practical situations are utilized for the formatting of the math problems. The non-calculator math section is 25 minutes with 17 questions. There are also three grid in problems.The calculator approved portion is 45 minutes with 31 questions, also with three grid in problems.

“I like the new PSAT,” freshman Michelle Koh said. “It’ll be great practice for the SAT.”

The new PSAT now resembles ACT, a 215-multiple choice question test. There are no point reductions for incorrect answers.There are practice books available from companies such as Princeton Review and McGraw Hill. In addition, there are previous test questions online.

“The test now seems less intimidating,” Koh said. “I hope I do well.”