I’ve tried studying for the PSAT but gotten so discouraged. i find this New SAT stuff so much harder 
guess no national merit for me. i got a 200 on the PSAT last year w/o studying so i was hoping with hardcore studying i could bump it to national merit but now probably not
I took the PSAT Practice test and got a 1320 (730 M and 590 Verbal) I know the verbal score is awful. I won’t make the cutoffs for NMS cuz I’m in Maryland which is gonna have a cutoff at about 1390. So someone please give me tips for the Verbal section (mainly the critical reading part).
@YoohooAddict I too am struggling with the CR. Today I just found this article that offers some insight as to how to improve your CR score. Just ignore the bits about the vocabulary as that’s no longer on the PSAT/SAT.
http://blog.prepscholar.com/how-to-get-800-on-sat-reading-10-strategies-by-a-perfect-scorer
Also check this thread out: http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/1024138-how-i-got-an-800-on-the-sat-critical-reading-a-story-and-guide-p1.html
@jjlundy I saw these too, but Idk, nothing’s working. I guess I have to find my area of weakness first before I start applying those tactics.
I’m barely doing my school work, I’m studying for the PSAT 24/7. My mom isn’t normally this bad, but apparently, Tiger Moms come in all colors when it comes to the PSAT. I do want to get a good score myself.
My mother didn’t take the PSAT when she was in high school in the 80’s. She barely knew about it, or she thought it was just a “practice test” (I hear some kids today still think this, I hope not too many.)
I’m using Khanacademy, Barron’s new PSAT book, PSAT booklet I just picked up from my local high school, and I’m doing some old SAT practice tests if that helps at all.
Back to Khanacademy before I’m busted.
@Princess563 That’s a lot of stress to deal with. I got my own stress to deal with too, but yea. I was browsing YouTube after I took the Practice PSAT and found a channel that seems legit. You can check it out, it’s called: ReasonPrep. However, I haven’t used it yet for CR, but math/writing wise, it’s really good.
@YoohooAddict Wow ReasonPrep is a gem. Thanks for that.
@jjlundy Yea it’s really good and useful. Your welcome. Also if you took the practice PSAT test, do you mind telling me what you scored for each section?
@YoohooAddict M: 740, R+W: 680. On the reading part I got 37/47 correct. On the writing part I got 41/44 correct. On Math (No Calc) I got 14/17 correct, and on the Math (with calc) I got 29/31. This is not a true reflection/prediction of my PSAT score as I did many of this questions in class while the teacher was talking. This past Saturday I took a new SAT and scored a 780 on math and 690 on CR+W. Hope to bring that CR+W score up.
Also, doing all of these CR and W exercises, “You’re* welcome.” Sorry haha.
@jjlundy Yea I know it’s supposed to be “You’re” but one time I wrote it that way (sometime around last year) and someone pointed out that it’s supposed to be “Your” so I don’t know. I probably can guess which math problems you got wrong but I’m not sure though. For no calc section, you probably got 9 and 13 wrong and for calc section, you probably got one of the last two wrong. Am I correct? BTW, your scores are good. I think my scores for the verbal were slightly affected by the fact that I didn’t take the test in a testing environment.
@YoohooAddict I suppose my scores are OK. They aren’t up to CC standards but I kinda stopped trying to be up to par with the crazies on here. For no calc I got: #9,10,12 wrong. Calc: #16,27. I have a bad tendency to make stupid mistakes, and standardized tests like this only exacerbate the issue. Looking back at these problems I saw my mistakes right away and was able to solve them without looking up the solution.
Did you miss the questions you pointed out? And what were your specific scores?
@jjlundy Here’s what I got 730 M 590 W/R
For M, here’s the breakdown
No calc: #9 and 12
Calc section ( I did this without a calculator so it was kinda unfair): #13, 16, 30, and 31.
W: 37/44
R:28/47
@YoohooAddict We’re both in the same situation. Our math scores are sufficient, but we need work on our verbal scores? What are you doing to improve CR+W scores?
I’m going to be watching all of Reason Prep’s videos over the course of the week.
Starting tomorrow, I’ll take a section of day of a khanacademy SAT.
Then, on Saturday, I’ll be taking a full-length SAT in one sitting.
To wrap things up, I’ll re-look over all of my mistakes from all of the tests I have taken.
It just hit me today that the PSAT is next Wednesday. Woops I procrastinated again.
@jjlundy Tbh, I didn’t have anything planned yet because we have a rigorous school schedule and our AP Gov teacher is so difficult. Oh well I’ll just go with your schedule. Oh shoot it is next Wednesday lol. Dang, I gotta start soon. Well we could review together here in the discussion too if you want.
@YoohooAddict We should probably move this to PM’s. I don’t think everyone cares to read our conversations… :))
@jjlundy Yea lol 
Man, I’m starting to get really frustrated about lack of extracurricular activities in my area. Outside of the school (which is pretty limited) there aren’t many volunteer/internship opportunities anywhere. I know it’s a silly thing to be anxious over, but I really don’t like that my junior year thus far has just been school, sleep, school, sleep, school, sleep. I managed to get into a pretty competitive internship program in my freshman year, but that ended this summer, and I’m starting to feel like I’m getting complacent.