Massmomm

I've looked all over for some info on this but can't find much. I'm asking because my son, a sophomore, will be taking the PSAT in a few weeks and he's very nervous about it, even though it's just for practice. However, he did really well on the SSAT when he took it in 8th grade (if I recall correctly, he got a 2330), so I think he's a good standardized test taker. If I had some actual statistics to show him, I think he'd be a lot less worried. Is there a website I'm missing that correlates the two scores?

bob88888

He should be fine! It is similar.

2prepMom

My daughter was taking SAT for talent searches the same year she took SSAT. The SSAT was harder, so your son should be fine on the PSAT.

Taking the practice test the school or website provides wouldn't be a bad idea, as well as reading over the instructions before hand (for example, is it good to guess?). That is the usual preparation recommended for 10th graders.

SevenDad

Two thoughts:

Since your son is a sophomore, the score doesn't really count for anything (like the National Merit Scholarship program) so no reason to be nervous. He may start to get mail from various schools depending on his scores.

I made my daughter (also a soph) take a PSAT over the summer just so she'd be familiar with the test before she takes it (the entire class takes it) this fall. She didn't score as high on it as she did on either the SAT (High Honors in 7th grade for CTY) or the SSAT (High 99th-ile).

Will be interesting to see how she does on the real thing this Fall, and we'll probably use that as a baseline for any prep through the year and into the summer for the Junior Fall test administration.

bookluver07

I scored lower on my PSAT than I did on the SSAT. SSAT was 99% percentile but PSAT was not close to that. SSAT was much easier

kdhindes

Okay so I'm taking the SSAT on December 8th and my mom got me a PSAT study book. I told her that I need an SSAT study book and she says that they're the same thing. I know that is false but if I use the PSAT study book, will I still get a good score on the SSATs?

SevenDad

@kdhindes...unfortunately, I don't think the tests are that similar...

SharingGift

@kdhindes,
I concur with 7Dad. I had a few prep books for my D, including princeton review and the official prep book. We liked the official prep book most. It's more expensive than others ($35+S&H), but I found it was worth the money.

My D took SAT in the 7th grade and SSAT in the 8th. I'm not sure how similar SAT is to PSAT, but for her reading/verbal was easier with SAT and math was easier with SSAT.