eifc7

I'm looking for opinions whether those of you who took the PSATs and then the SATs thought the PSATs were more difficult than the SATs. I'm curious because we know kids who are brilliant who did not do well on the PSAT i.e. did not make NMSF and then did nearly perfect scores on SATs first time out. CB says something to the effect that the PSATs are predictive of the student's SAT score. What do you students on the forum think?

Also, my daughter who is among the top students in her HS, said that many of her peers were taking the PSAT lightly and barely prepping while she was stressing out. I told her, IMO, it was more a show of bravado then truth--especially since I know these kids and they are all very competitive.

From the looks of the threads for the PSAT S group, it looks like the majority of posters took the test seriously enough....

collegebound41

s group=internationals, so it has to be competitive.

PSAT=easier, harsher curve
SAT= ALG 2, somewhat easier curve

mifune

I did the PSAT and did not do well (<200) since I had never studied for it and was not completely familiar with the skills tested. But on my first time on the SAT, I am expecting around 2380. I guess in general most feel that the PSAT was more of a challenge at the time since those taking it are relatively new to the standardized testing atmosphere.

thrill3rnit3

much harsher curve on the PSAT. You HAVE to get everything right to get an 80 (most of the time), plus a -1 (esp. on math) usually result to like a 76 or 75 (yikes).

In terms of the actual difficulty, it's the SAT no question

collegebound41

^^mfiune...standardized testing is used in America from 2nd grade on(sometimes 1st). the only difference is the smaller time limit, which most people get used to after their first try.

qwert13

I agree with thrill. The curve is extrmeely harsh. I missed 3 on one section and it lowered my score for ht section to like 700. SAT is ahrder and longer so personally the length just makes it feel harder and the essay.

eifc7

Thanks for your responses. When my daughter was doing the practice tests, she realized quickly that one wrong dropped you down the way you described--like to a 76 or so the way thrill described above.

I made mistake of telling her re: thread on the Oct 17th PSAT and though she thought she may've gotten an 80 on math she was upset when someone posted an answer on one of math problems which she answered differently. Hey, maybe the poster was wrong, you never know....

SDMomof3

For what its worth, my son thought the math on the Wednesday 10/14 PSAT was harder than the math on the October SAT, in the sense that the problems on the PSATs were trickier and took more work to figure out the answer. (He had been routinely scoring 800s on the math portion of the SAT practice tests) That view seems to be in the minority here though!

bluebayou

btw: the reason for the harsher "curve" (which is really a misnomer) is that the psat is shorter and thus, each question is "worth" more. As collegebound pointed out, the psat does not cover Alg II whereas the SAT has a handfull of All II problems on it. For someone strong in math, SAT-m may appear "easier" bcos its more current to the tester. The psat includes more of those pesky math rules that everyone forgets after the Frosh final.

ChoklitRain

it's easier to get a 240 on the PSAT than a 2400 SAT. but I think it's easier to get a 2150 SAT than 215 PSAT because it only takes a few mistakes on the PSAT to lose those 25 points.