Why Take the PSAT?
There are two main reasons to take the PSAT:
- It is the best practice for the SAT.
- The National Merit Scholarship Corporation uses the PSAT
to decide which high-school students will be distinguished as National
Merit Commendations, Semi-Finalists, Finalists, and Scholars. Colleges
take the National Merit Scholarships very seriously. Some National
Merit Finalists will also receive up to $2500. In addition to the
money, these awards and distinctions will enhance your college application.
The PSAT as Wonderful Practice
Taking the PSAT is probably the best preparation for taking
the SAT. This may seem curious since we’ve already told you that
the format is not exactly the same, but it’s true. Taking the PSAT
feels like taking the SAT in a way that no practice test can simulate.
You have to take it on a specified morning, it’s proctored, and,
most important, you’re probably going to be a little nervous because
something is actually at stake.
The other great thing about the PSAT is that while doing
very well can help you, doing poorly can’t work against you. Colleges
don’t look closely at your PSAT scores. They are much more interested
in whether you received a Merit Scholarship than in what your score was.
So if you don’t do as well as you would have liked, it’s not the
end of the world.
In sum, taking the PSAT will give you a good idea of how
you will do on the real SAT and will make you more comfortable in
the test-taking environment. You may not enjoy it while you’re doing
it, but preparing for and taking the PSAT will pay off in the very
near future.
The PSAT as the Road to Riches
The PSAT can be good for you. And when we say
“be good for you,” we mean “get you academic glory and, maybe, money.”
Glory and riches don’t come easily though. Over one million students
take the PSAT each year, and only those who score among the top
5% receive National Merit Commendations. Even fewer students, just
15,000, are recognized as National Merit Semi-Finalists. And of
those 15,000, only about 14 percent receive scholarship awards.
In other words, the National Merit Scholarship awards are given
to the top performers on the PSAT. That’s why receiving a Letter
of Commendation or any higher distinction from the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation can so greatly help your college application
move from the “Maybe” into the “Yes” pile.
You may be wondering how the National Merit Scholarship
Corporation chooses its award recipients. Letters of Commendation
and Semi-Finalist status are doled out according to your “selection
index,” which is a fancy name for your total score. No other criteria are
considered. Interestingly enough, however, the “National” in “National
Merit Scholarship” is a little inaccurate. In actuality, you’re
only competing with students in your state, so a given selection
index might be good enough for Semi-Finalist status in one state but
only merit a Letter of Commendation in another.
A Semi-Finalist who wants to become a Finalist must fill
out an application form and meet academic and other requirements.
About 14,000 of 15,000 Semi-Finalists become Finalists. After that,
the National Merit Scholarship Corporation selects its scholarship winners.
Two thousdand of those finalists will receive $2,500 scholarships funded
by the Corporation. Some other winners might receive scholarships
from other corporations or money straight from the university they
will attend. It’s not clear how the award winners are picked, so
we can’t tell you how to beat that system. But at least it should
be clear now that the PSAT is something you should take seriously.
