1. Reach Your College Goals
I’d like to spend a little time this evening introducing you to the PSAT/NMSQT® and highlighting how it can help you reach your college and career goals.

2. An Overview Why Take the PSAT/NMSQT® Planning for College and Careers
What to Expect … and When
First, we’ll talk about how the PSAT/NMSQT helps you gain an understanding of your academic skills so that you know what you need to do to get ready for the SAT® and for college. It does this by giving you personalized feedback — information that is customized just for you. The PSAT/NMSQT also provides you with access to personalized online tools to help you achieve your college and career goals, and it can connect you to valuable college scholarships Finally, we’ll look at some specific information about taking the PSAT/NMSQT, what information you will receive and when it will be available to you.

3. Preliminary SAT/National merit scholarship qualifying test
About the PSAT/NMSQT®
Preliminary SAT/National merit scholarship qualifying test
PSAT/NMSQT stands for Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

4. The PSAT/NMSQT® : Reach Your College Goals
is more than just a test score.
provides personalized feedback on your academic strengths and the areas that need improvement.
gives you the tools you need to improve your skills and get ready for the SAT®, college, and a career.
The PSAT is about a lot more than just a test score. It helps you understand the relationship between your score and your academic skills. The PSAT gives you personalized feedback on your academic strengths and the skills you need to work on, plus it gives you the tools you need to improve your skills so that you can get ready for the SAT, college and a career.

5. The PSAT/NMSQT® Evaluates What You’ve Learned in School
The PSAT/NMSQT evaluates the academic skills that you and your teachers work on every day in the classroom
Critical Reading
Mathematics
Writing
Learn more at
The PSAT/NMSQT evaluates the skills that you and your teachers are working on every day in school in three academic areas: Reading, Math, and Writing.

6. The PSAT/NMSQT® as a Preliminary SAT®
PSAT/NMSQT and SAT
Evaluate the same skills, as appropriate for grade level
Have the same format and types of questions (except essay)
Are administered in the same way so if you take the PSAT/NMSQT, you know what to expect on SAT test day
As I mentioned, PSAT stands for Preliminary SAT and taking the PSAT is an important part of getting ready for the SAT.
The PSAT and SAT are similar. They both evaluate the same skills, as appropriate to grade level.
The types of questions and the format are the same on both tests and both tests are administered in the same way. That means if you’ve taken the PSAT, you’re going to know what to expect on SAT test day, which should help you feel more relaxed and ready to focus on the test.
Q: What does “appropriate for grade level” mean?
A: Students most commonly take the PSAT in 10th grade and the SAT in 11th grade. So the SAT tests some of the skills at a more advanced level than the PSAT, but the skill categories are the same.
Q: What are the skill categories?
A: There are several in each section. As we will discuss more later, full descriptions of these categories and ways to develop each skill — including practice questions — are available on the College Board’s website.
Critical Reading Skill Categories: Determining the Meaning of Words, Author’s Craft, Reason and Inference, Organization and Ideas, and Understanding Literary Elements.
Math Skill Categories: Number and Operations, Algebra and Functions, Geometry and Measurement, Data Statistics and Probability, Problem Solving, Representation, Reasoning, Connections, and Communication.
Writing Skill Categories: Manage Word Choice and Grammatical Relationship Between Words, Manage Grammatical Structures Used to Modify or Compare, Manage Phrases or Clauses in a Sentence, Recognize Correctly Formed Sentences, and Manage Order and Relationships of Sentences and Paragraphs.

7. The PSAT/NMSQT® Helps Get You Ready for the SAT®
On average, students who take the PSAT/NMSQT score 146 points higher on the SAT than those who don’t.
Students taking the PSAT/NMSQT twice score even higher.
The PSAT/NMSQT provides tools to help you improve your skills before you take the SAT.
On average, students who take the PSAT score 146 points higher on the SAT than those who don’t. And students who take the PSAT twice generally see an even greater score gain on the SAT.
To increase your chances of improving your score, focus on improving your skills. The tools you get after taking the PSAT/NMSQT can help you identify your weak areas and make improvements before you take the SAT.

8. Personalized PSAT/NMSQT® Skills Feedback
The PSAT/NMSQT gives you the skills feedback you need to get ready for the SAT® and college.
PSAT/NMSQT skills feedback is:
Personalized — you know exactly the skills you need to improve
Early — you have plenty of time to improve
Actionable — you have the resources you need to improve
One of the major benefits of the PSAT is the personalized skills feedback that students receive.
Because this feedback is personalized, you know exactly the skills you need to improve in order to get the SAT score you want.
You get the feedback early in your high school career so that you have time to improve your skills.
And it’s actionable because taking the PSAT gives you access to resources to help you develop your skills.

9. The PSAT/NMSQT® Connects You to College Scholarships and Academic Recognition
National Merit Scholarship Corporation scholarship and recognition programs
Other scholarship and recognition programs
National Merit Program
National Achievement Program
National Hispanic Recognition Program
National Scholarship Service
The Telluride Association
The PSAT can also help you connect to college scholarships and academic recognition. As I mentioned, the N-M-S-Q-T in PSAT/NMSQT stands for National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.
The National Merit Scholarship Corporation uses the PSAT as an initial screening for college scholarship competitions. It has two main scholarship and academic recognition programs.
The first is the National Merit Program, which awards 9,600 college scholarships each year with an additional 50,000 students recognized for their academic potential.
The National Achievement Program awards 800 college scholarships to Black American students each year, and an additional 4,700 students are recognized for their academic potential.
More information about both programs can be found on the National Merit Scholarship Corporation website at
The PSAT may also make you eligible for other programs such as:
The National Hispanic Recognition Program, which identifies approximately 5,000 high-scoring students for recognition annually.
The National Scholarship Service is a free college referral and advisory service for African American students.
And the Telluride Association awards scholarships to academically gifted high school juniors interested in taking summer seminars in the humanities and social sciences.
More information about these programs is available at

10. The PSAT/NMSQT® and Student Search Service® : Connecting You to Colleges and Scholarships
Student Search Service helps interested colleges and scholarship programs find you.
When you register for the PSAT/NMSQT, you will have the opportunity to say “Yes” to Student Search Service
Student Search Service shares some of the demographic and contact information that you provide
Student Search Service does not share: scores, Social Security number, telephone number
Student Search Service is a program that can help you connect to colleges and scholarships. It is a free service that helps interested colleges and scholarship programs find you.
When you register for the PSAT, you will have the opportunity to say yes to Student Search Service. By saying “yes,” some of the demographic and contact information you provide will be shared with colleges and scholarship programs that are looking for students with your characteristics.
Student Search Service does not share your scores, your Social Security number or your telephone number.
Q: What kind of demographic information is shared with Student Search Service?
A: Name, address, gender, birth date, high school code, graduation year, ethnic identification (if provided), intended college major (if provided), and address (if provided).

11. Personalized Feedback and College planning tools
What you get
Personalized Feedback and College planning tools
Now let’s take a closer look at the personalized feedback you receive when you take the PSAT, as well as all of the personalized tools that are designed to help you connect to the college and career you want.

12. PSAT/NMSQT® Score Reports
Receiving your results
You will receive your paper Score Report Plus from your school — generally sometime in December or January.
You will be able to access an enhanced online score report through My College QuickStart™ once you’ve received your paper score report.
Students take the PSAT at school in October, and you’ll receive your paper Score Report Plus from school in [SPEAKER INSERT MONTH].
Once you’ve received your paper score report, you’ll be able to access an enhanced online score report through a program called My College QuickStart™, which I’ll tell you more about in just a moment.
But first, let’s take a closer look at what PSAT’s Score Report Plus gives you.

13. PSAT/NMSQT® Score Report Plus: Looking beyond your scores
This is what your Score Report Plus will look like. You’ll see it has four main sections.
The first is “Your Scores.” It gives you your score on a scale of 20–80 for each of the three sections — Critical Reading, Math, and Writing. It also shows you how you scored relative to other students in your grade.
The second section is called “Your Skills.” This is the section of the paper report that lets you know what skills you’ve mastered and what skills you need to work on.
The third section is “Your Answers.” Here you’ll see the correct answer, your answer, and the difficulty level for each question on the PSAT.
And last, the “Next Steps” section. This is where you will find a unique code that allows you to access My College QuickStart and all the personalized SAT preparation and college planning tools it has to offer.
Now let’s take a closer look at the benefits of My College QuickStart.

14. My College QuickStart™
My College QuickStart is a personalized online college and career planning tool that lets you:
Search for colleges
Explore majors and careers
See correct answers and explanations
Get a personalized SAT® study plan
Take a personality test
Unlimited use for all PSAT/NMSQT® takers until you graduate from high school
My College QuickStart is a free online resource that provides personalized information for each PSAT taker. It includes:
An online score report;
A personalized SAT study plan;
A detailed personality test that helps you discover what college majors and careers might be a good fit for you; and
A personalized list of colleges that you may be a good fit for you.
You can also register for the SAT using My College QuickStart.
You have unlimited access to all the resources of My College QuickStart until you graduate from high school.
Let’s look at few of the features of My College QuickStart and discuss how they can help you achieve your goals.

15. My College QuickStart™: Improve Your Skills
Look beyond scores
Personalized feedback on the skills you need to improve
Hundreds of practice questions and explanations
A full-length SAT® Practice Test
In My College QuickStart, you can access an interactive online score report and a personalized SAT study plan — both based on your answers and scores.
Your online score report helps you understand what your scores mean and provides clear explanations about why you got each question right or wrong. It is also the only place where you can see your projected SAT score.
Your personalized study plan helps you focus on the skills you need to improve so you can get the SAT score you want.
You get access to hundreds of practice questions and can filter them to focus on the skills you need to improve.
You’ll also find a full-length SAT practice test at My College QuickStart.

16. My College QuickStart™: Plan for College and Careers
Explore your future
Personality test to help you learn more about your strengths and interests
Hundreds of majors and careers to explore
Customizable college search
In My College QuickStart, you can take a detailed personality test that will help you identify your interests and discover majors and careers that fit your strengths and interests.
My College QuickStart can also help you begin your college search by giving you a personalized list of colleges that may be a good fit for you. The list is based on your home state and intended major, but you can customize it with the criteria that are important to you.

17. PSAT/NMSQT® What to expect with the
Now let’s take a look at some specific information about test administration and planning for test day.

18. PSAT/NMSQT® Administration Dates
2011 Test Dates:
Wednesday, Oct. 12
Saturday, Oct. 15
The PSAT will be administered at school on [SPEAKER INSERT DATE].

19. PSAT/NMSQT® Test Day You should bring: You should know:
Two No. 2 pencils.
An approved calculator for use on math sections. You are encouraged to bring a calculator that you’re comfortable using.
You should know:
Social Security number or Student ID number (optional)
address (optional)
On test day, you should bring with you two No. 2 pencils and an approved calculator for use on the math sections.
It is strongly recommended that you bring a calculator on test day, and you should bring one that you are comfortable using.
Approved calculators are four-function, scientific, and graphing calculators.
It is optional for you to provide your Social Security number or Student ID number. Students at this school should enter their [NOTE TO SPEAKER: DECIDE WHICH NUMBER STUDENTS AT THIS SCHOOL SHOULD ENTER AND INFORM THEM OF THE DECISION]
It is also optional for you to provide your address.

20. PSAT/NMSQT® Questions: Making Educated Guesses
The PSAT/NMSQT is scored differently from other tests you’ve taken.
How it works:
When you are uncertain of the answer to a question on the PSAT/NMSQT, it will benefit you to use educated guessing.
Educated guessing means guessing an answer whenever you can eliminate one or more of the choices as definitely wrong.
Random guessing is not recommended since ¼ point is deducted for each wrong answer.
If you can’t eliminate one or more of the choices as definitely wrong, skip that question and move on to the next one.
Because the PSAT is probably scored differently from other tests you’ve taken, you should know about using educated guessing.
When you’re not sure of an answer on the PSAT, it will benefit you to use educated guessing, which means guessing an answer when you can eliminate one or more answer choices as definitely wrong.
Random guessing isn’t recommended since ¼ point is deducted for each wrong answer.
If you can’t answer one or more of the choices as definitely wrong, just skip that question and move on to the next question.
Q: Are the questions on the PSAT all multiple choice?
A: The PSAT includes five sections:
Two 25-minute critical reading sections
Two 25-minute math sections
One 30-minute writing skills section
Most of the questions on the PSAT are multiple choice. The Math section includes 10 student-produced responses or “grid-in” questions that require students to fill in their answer.
Q: How is the score between 20 –80 calculated for each test section?
A: Students receive one point for each correct answer, regardless of difficulty.
For wrong answers to multiple-choice questions, a quarter (1/4) of a point is deducted. Nothing is deducted for unanswered questions or for wrong answers to student-produced response (grid-in) questions.
Next, the raw score is converted to a score on the PSAT/NMSQT scale of 20 to 80 points. This statistical procedure, called equating, adjusts for differences in difficulty between various forms, or editions, of the test.
Equating is done to make it possible to compare the scores of students who have taken different editions of the test, and it makes the scores from last year's test comparable to those from this year's PSAT/NMSQT.
Q: Is the PSAT fair? How do you know it really reflects a student’s skills?
A: Thorough reviews and analyses are done to ensure that questions and tests are fair for different groups of students. More information on how the College Board develops the test is available on the College Board website.
While differences in test performance can be due to many different factors, long-term educational preparation is the primary cause — which is why a rigorous high school curriculum is such an important part of achieving the test score you want.  

21. PSAT/NMSQT® Official Student Guide
Includes a full-length practice test and more information on National Merit Scholarships
Visit the PSAT/NMSQT online
View answer explanations for practice test
Get more practice questions and useful tips
There are free copies of the PSAT/NMSQT Student Guide available [SPEAKER: INSERT RELEVANT INFORMATION ABOUT WHERE STUDENTS CAN GET THE GUIDE AT YOUR SCHOOL].
The Student Guide includes a full-length practice test and additional information on National Merit Scholarships. You can find answers to the practice test questions, additional practice questions and helpful test-taking tips at

22. Thanks for your attention, and now I would be happy to answer any questions you may have.