My little brother is taking the PSAT tomorrow. Does anybody have any advice/news on the test for this year...

My little brother is taking the PSAT tomorrow. Does anybody have any advice/news on the test for this year? He's going through a tough time with school and I want to help him try to be on the national merit finalist sign in his school.

Grade level?

PSAT is just the practice. He should try his best and practice on the sections he did weak on once he gets his scores

he's in 11th grade. It's his last year before he has no chance.

I believe in certain schools, seniors can take the PSAT.

Memorize everything he should have been learning all this time.
Especially maths and english.

>Does anybody have any advice/news on the test for this year?

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You are welcome

If he is having trouble, what makes you think he can even qualify for national merit?

op here. for the school district it's only available to sophomores and juniors.

i have faith in him. He recently did a practice sat test and got a 1400.

Class of 2016 national merit semi-finalist here
the math section has a lot more weight than the english one

Don't know the significance of a 1400 ever since they changed it. What's the max now?

Tough time as in socially or academically?

max is a 1600

socially primarily but he's a b student in school taking honors classes

He is starting to make it seem like an emotional tough time..

It is different from the class of 2016. They took stuff out.

He should be fine for it then, and besides, those who achieve those higher scores are advantaged in certain ways.

do you know how it looks on a college resume? like he asked me earlier today about how it affects college resumes; if there's a vast difference between, say, one person applying to a specific college who was a semi-finalist and the other who wasn't a semi-finalist?

They say that 40% of it is SAT and 60% grades and achievements. Being a semi-finalist is more of an honor with some benefits, but colleges don't really care that much..

oh that's good, so i can tell him to try his best, and even if he screws up, he'll still be okay because it isn't significant to the big picture

he wont qualify, we had a lot of 33s and a few 34s on the ACT at my school and nobody qualified

It means A LOT more to be involved, have leadership positions, make good grades on the honors classes (and AP exams if that is what you are into)... and volunteer.. eh

More people score perfect scores on the ACT than the SAT... You can't say that with certainty, although I remember that the margin for semi-finalist for my class was significantly narrow.

If his goal is college, is he trying to get into a small private university or a big public one or what?

he's looking at mainly bigger colleges. mainly trying to get into UCLA, Berkeley, or at best Yale.

Well, if you truly want to do something to help, first you news to realize the night before the test is too late to do anything. Second, you should probably end your life for making a this shitty thread.

Does he know what he wants to major in? Just kinda sounds like he is picking big name colleges.

dude, did you even read the thread? he's been taking practice sat's and other khan academy stuff; i'm just trying to be a good brother and i don't want him to screw up on it like i did 3 years ago

He wants to do Pre-Law or Political Science; if not, he told me he'd do audio engineering.

oh mkay. Just tell him to get involved more if he isn't already. Colleges love people that are involved and smart more than bookworms who just roam the hall.

The PSAT is just a practice for the format of a normal SAT. You should have already been practicing the types of questions the SAT has in your classes, and you should have already gone over the rules (points for correct and left blank, minus for wrong). It's shorter than the regular test but it's pretty much the same thing otherwise. It definitely isn't that hard if you are prepared for the weird types of questions they ask and the tricks they like to pull.

yeah man thanks. he's involved in like 4 clubs this year and is doing lots of community service that pertain to his interests so i'm proud of him for taking initiative.