I just recently took the PSAT this year and got a 1460 out of 1520. I was happy with this score, and expected it to carry over proportionately on the 1600 scale. However, I took a Princeton Review practice test at my high school to test this theory and only achieved a 1340 out of 1600. I was surprised at the score discrepancy, which begged the question, is the PSAT just significantly easier than the SAT, or is it perhaps that the Princeton Review practice questions were harder than the official College Board questions? Is the actual SAT easier than the Princeton Review test I took, or are the PSAT and SAT question difficulties less comparable than I initially thought?
The PSAT is not easier.
The Princeton review is not written by the College Board so it can not be used to gauge your score. Try one of the released SAT tests.
Okay, thank you so much for clearing that up for me. I will take one of those released tests next to gauge my score.
The PSAT is easier if you compare it head to head to the SAT. The reason it’s predictive is that you take the “easier” test a year earlier. Relatively, they should feel the same if you’re comparing age appropriate sittings. If you took the PSAT as a Senior and the SAT as a Senior, you’d probably do better on the PSAT. And yes, only take College Board tests.
According to the College Board, if you took both the PSAT and the SAT on the same day, you would expect the same score https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/psat-nmsqt-understanding-scores-2016.pdf
The CB’s plan becomes clearer by looking at the PSAT 8/9 percentile charts, where a total score of 1180 is the 99th percentile. One might imagine the talented 8th grader scoring 1180 (99th percentile) on PSAT 8/9 also ends up scoring at the 99th percentile on the actual SAT three years later, at a much higher score.
However, the fly in the ointment is the quality of CB’s work product under Coleman, which doesn’t inspire tons of confidence. (e.g. did I not read someplace that the percentile charts for psat 2015 were wrong?)
In addition, the PSAT has a lower ceiling and accordingly the CB’s same-day score prediction doesn’t make much sense in the top percentiles.
@Quizzaciously , I would consider both your PSAT and Princeton Review practice scores to be rough estimates but not very precise predictors. In addition, from reading discussions here it sounds as though there may be variations in difficulty (and presumably curves?) among different administrations of the New SAT. Good luck on the real thing!
@eyemph
Is there data out there that show that taken simultaneously with the SAT the PSAT is easier? All of my kids so far and most of their friends got better scores in their SATs than the PSAT and they took the tests very close (December and January of Junior year). The thought the SAT was easier 
Maybe it is psychological as they get used to the idea…
According to the College Board, if you took the PSAT and the SAT on the same day, you would expect the same score, and if you took the SAT later, you would expect a higher score on the SAT. https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/psat-nmsqt-understanding-scores-2016.pdf
The CB’s plan becomes clearer if we look at the PSAT 8/9, where an 8th grader could score an 1180 and be within the 99th percentile. One might imagine the same 8th grader might score within the 99th percentile on the SAT three years later, at a higher score.
However, the fly in the ointment is the quality of the CB’s work product under Coleman. (E.g., didn’t I read someplace that the percentiles for PSAT 2015 were wrong?) In addition, the PSAT has a lower ceiling, so CB’s plan doesn’t make much sense in the top percentiles.
(not sure what happened to my first post? I was just trying to edit and it vanished?)
@Quizzaciously , I agree with @Am7799 , try one of the real released SATs from the College Board rather than relying on the Princeton Review estimates. If I recall, tests #5, 6, 7 at Khan Academy were actual administrations.
We’ll find out how it works out for our youngest in a few weeks. Our oldest took the old SAT and didn’t score higher; the difference probably wasn’t statistically significant, though.
I had the exact same problem.
PSAT 1460/1520
SAT 1380/1600
I blamed bad luck at first but maybe the PSAT is just easier than the SAT
S scored higher on December SAT than on October PSAT. No special extra prep in the two months between the exams, and he was very well prepared for the PSAT. It was his first SAT, but third year taking the PSAT.
@traveler98 Do you mind sharing how much your child improved on PSAT each year? D scored fairly well as a sophomore, but had a bad experience with this recent SAT. I am hoping to see a jump in her PSAT score, although she does not have much time to prep.