<p>Hi All,</p>
<p>I am sure this question has been asked before, but I can’t find the appropriate thread.</p>
<p>I am doing really good on my PSAT practice tests (Kaplan, Princeton). </p>
<p>Am I likely to achieve the same score range on the real test in October?</p>
<p>yes. keep on doing what you are doing and get a hold of the collegeboard official book and do the practice tests in there and what you get in there should be pretty darn close to what you should expect in october.</p>
<p>yeah u prolli will do the same range or even better cuz the Kaplan, Princeton review practice test are harder than the actual SAT’s</p>
<p>i heard the Kaplan prep book was much easier than actual sat’s</p>
<p>well i took a kaplan SAT course…and their practice SATs were really hard</p>
<p>kollegekid - I think a good investment is to buy 1 or 2 released PSAT tests from College Board</p>
<p><a href=“Store App”>Store App;
<p>They are only $3 each (a bargain by CB standards) and provide a much more valid picture than PR or Kaplan tests.</p>
<p>Kaplan’s practice SAT’s are harder than the real tests period. I got a 640 on a critical reading Kaplan diagnostic *a week *before the real SAT. Next week on the real SAT I got 800 in critical reading.</p>
<p>I never got above a 1900 on a Kaplan practice test and I scored a 2190 on the actual thing, with intense maths prep from a personal tutor. I scored in the low 500s on all the writing practice tests and an 800 with nothing but the practice tests the first time out. Same deal with CR and a 770. Because of my experience, I think that the practice tests are most difficult than the real thing.</p>
<p>Hey, kollegkid!</p>
<p>I think the Kaplan PSATs are <em>much</em> easier than real PSATs. But you can (and should) order real PSATs from the College Board to answer this question, as somebody else said. There is no substitute for CB tests.</p>
<p>i agree with FredFredBurger but i dnt think i wud have that big of a jump</p>
<p>Well. I took a real College Board PSAT this evening, and I did have a score drop. Should I hit the Blue Book now, or should I continue with the secondary sources for PSAT prep tests? I want to “save” the old College Board PSATs for spot checks, I think, since they do not have rationales for answers.</p>
<p>I would probably switch to the Blue Book, yeah. Fake PSATs and SATs are not only different in difficulty, they are also somewhat different in style: the tips and tricks that work very well on Kaplan exams may work less well on real CB tests, for instance. </p>
<p>The only risk you run here is that, when you want to study for the SAT, you will have fewer practice tests available to you. But by studying for the PSAT now, you are reducing the amount of time you will have to study for the SAT later: you are really hitting two birds with one stone. So you will probably <em>need</em> fewer tests at that point, and you will be okay. There are also a number of other CB-developed SATs that you can get your hands on when you need to study for the SAT. So I think there is little downside to working through the Blue Book now, and a lot of potential upside.</p>
<p>I think your idea to keep the rest of the real PSATs as “spot checks” is a good one.</p>
<p>Thanks. That’s what I’ll do then. I’ll hit the Blue Book today. I admit I preferred the shorter PSATs. I had a sense of accomplishment when finishing full PSATs. It’ll take more time to do full SATs.</p>
<p>This link has answers and explanations for both the Wed and Sat administrations of the 2006 PSAT</p>
<p><a href=“College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools”>College Board - SAT, AP, College Search and Admission Tools;
<p>Thanks mcmom! Are other, older PSAT explanations available?</p>
<p>Do you mean the SAT in October or PSAT in October?</p>
<p>If you mean the PSAT in October, CB publishes a free booklet that should be in your Counseling Center that teaches you how to take the PSAT while also including an actual practice test (I don’t know if you have that already). I collected a few year’s worth of those booklets (the test in the booklet changes every year) and I found they mirrored my actual performance very well, often to the range of around 5 points.</p>