Everything Parents Need to Know About the PSAT
If you have a 10th or 11th grader, the PSAT is probably on your radar right now. Maybe they're taking it this month. Maybe they just took it. Maybe the scores just came back and you're staring at a report full of numbers, wondering what any of it means.
This guide is meant to answer the questions we hear most often and help you make sense of what to do next.
Ask how the test went, before the score comes back
Most NYC kids aren't new to standardized tests. By junior year, a lot of them have already taken the SHSAT, the ISEE, the TACHS or the HSPT. They know what it's like to work against a timer.
But that was two or three years ago, and the PSAT is a different test. It's digital. It's adaptive, so how a student does on the first module changes what the second one looks like. The pacing is its own thing. We see students who can get through a practice set at the kitchen table without a problem, then run out of time in the second module.
So ask now, before the score comes back and becomes the only thing anyone talks about. Did you finish? Was there a question that ate up five minutes? When did you start to feel tired? Did the math or the reading feel harder than you expected?
Those answers tell us almost as much as the score. A student who scores 1250 and ran out of time on every module has a different problem than a student who scores 1250 and finished with ten minutes left.
When do PSAT scores come out?
Scores come out in three waves: October 22, November 5 or November 12. Which one depends on when your student tested. If a friend at another school already has scores and yours doesn't, it’s likely that they tested on different days.
Your student can see scores in their College Board account or in the BigFuture School app, if they gave a phone number on test day. The school also gets a PDF score report for every student.
What's on the PSAT score report?
The report has more on it than the total. Here's what you'll find.
The total score and two section scores. Reading and Writing and Math are each scored from 160 to 760, for a total between 320 and 1520.
A score range under each number. This is College Board admitting a test is never perfectly precise. The range shows where your kid would likely land if they took a different version of the test under the same conditions.
A percentile and an average. More on percentiles below.
Knowledge and Skills. This is the most useful part of the report for prep. It breaks the test into eight skill areas, four in each section, and shows how your kid did in each one.
The Selection Index. This is the number National Merit uses. For most students it's irrelevant. For a few, it's the most important number on the page.
If your student logs into their College Board account, there's more. They can see percentiles compared to other students in New York, not just nationally. They can also see whether they met College Board's grade-level benchmarks (for juniors, 460 in Reading and Writing and 510 in Math) and pull up example questions from the next skill level up.
How do PSAT scores compare to the SAT?
The PSAT and the SAT are scored on the same scale, just with different ceilings. They just cover different ranges. The PSAT runs from 320 to 1520, since it has fewer of the hardest questions.
Because the scale is shared, a 500 in Math on the PSAT reflects the same skill as a 500 in Math on the SAT. If your kid had taken the SAT that day, you'd expect a score in the same neighborhood, especially in the middle of the range. So think of the PSAT as a read on where your kid would land on the SAT today, before any prep.
The PSAT has the same time limits and number of questions as the SAT, so its good for checking a student's stamina too.
What the PSAT doesn't tell you is where their score will end up. That depends on the work they put in between now and test day.
What do the percentiles mean?
The percentile tells you how your kid did compared to everyone else in their grade. If a junior is in the 80th percentile, they scored as well as or better than 80 percent of juniors who took the PSAT over the last three years.
Does the PSAT matter?
It does and it doesn't.
It doesn't matter for admissions. Colleges don't see PSAT scores, and they aren't part of the application.
It does matter as information. It's the closest thing you'll get to a free, official SAT diagnostic. And for a small group of juniors, it matters a lot because of National Merit. We'll get to that.
Is my child's score good?
That depends on what colleges your kid is aiming for. Here's roughly how PSAT scores for juniors line up with percentiles:
| PSAT Total | About This Percentile (Juniors) |
|---|---|
| 1450 | 98th |
| 1400 | 96th |
| 1300 | 91st |
| 1200 | 82nd |
| 1100 | 69th |
| 1000 | 53rd |
A 1200 is better than most juniors in the country. For a student applying to a SUNY that might be a strong starting point. For a student with Columbia or Cornell on the list, it's the beginning of the conversation and a commitment to putting in the work to improve.
So the better question is: good compared to what? Look up the middle 50 percent SAT range at the schools your kid is interested in on College Board’s Big Future website. That's the number to compare against.
What to do first: figure out what's strong and what's weak
Before anyone starts prepping, evaluate what is working and what is not.
Start with the Knowledge and Skills section of the report. Reading and Writing is broken into four areas: Information and Ideas, Craft and Structure, Expression of Ideas, and Standard English Conventions. Math has four too: Algebra, Advanced Math, Problem-Solving and Data Analysis, and Geometry and Trigonometry. The total tells you where your kid is. The skill areas tell you what to work on.
Two patterns come up a lot. If your junior is in the middle of Algebra 2, expect Advanced Math to be the weakest area. That's where the test covers things like quadratics and exponential functions, and they haven't finished learning them yet. It's not a red flag. It just affects when we'd want them to test. (More on that in how SAT/ACT prep can boost your student's Algebra 2 grade.)
The other is Standard English Conventions, which is grammar and punctuation. Plenty of strong readers struggle here, even kids in honors or AP English, because most schools don't teach grammar rules directly. It's also the easiest place on the test to pick up points. The rules are limited, and once students learn them, they stick.
Then put the report next to how test day actually went. Did they run out of time? Which section felt hardest? Were they second-guessing answers, or did they feel fine and still lose points?
That's the part the score report can't tell you. It shows where your kid lost points, not why. And the why is what decides the plan. Two kids can miss the same five grammar questions for completely different reasons. One never learned the comma rule. The other knew it and rushed. The first kid needs teaching. The second needs pacing work. Same score, different fix.
Figuring that out is what a good tutor does. They sit with your kid, watch them work through the questions they missed, and find the pattern a report can't show. It's also exactly what we look at in our free PSAT score review. We'll go through the skill areas, what your kid is taking in school and how test day went, and tell you where the points are. Request a free PSAT score review
Have them try a practice ACT
The PSAT only tells you about one test. Before you commit to SAT prep, have your kid take a full practice ACT. Some students do noticeably better on one format than the other, and you won't know which until they try both. Our SAT vs ACT guide has a short quiz and we offer a free full-length practice ACT test.
Plan the real test
Most juniors take their first SAT in March, then retake in May, June, August, or September. At Wagner Prep, we advise every family to plan on taking it three times to maximize their superscore and relieve test day anxiety.
We start prep about 10 weeks before that first test. If you want to see how the whole year fits together, here's our month-by-month guide for juniors.
If National Merit is on the table
For a small group of juniors, this PSAT matters a lot. The junior-year PSAT is also the National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, and the scoring works differently than most parents expect.
National Merit doesn't use the PSAT total. It uses a Selection Index:
(Reading and Writing x 2 + Math) divided by 10
The range is 48 to 228. Reading and Writing counts double. More on how scoring works here.
| Reading and Writing | Math | PSAT Total | Selection Index |
|---|---|---|---|
| 750 | 700 | 1450 | 220 |
| 700 | 750 | 1450 | 215 |
| 720 | 700 | 1420 | 214 |
| 680 | 720 | 1400 | 208 |
| 700 | 680 | 1380 | 208 |
New York's Semifinalist cutoff for the Class of 2027 was 220. The year before, it was 223. The national Commended cutoff was 208. This fall's juniors are the Class of 2028, and they won't know their cutoff until September 2027. When we plan with families, we plan against 220 to 223 and don't assume the number keeps falling.
A few reminders
It's practice. The PSAT is a first look at the SAT, not a verdict on your kid.
Don't panic over a low score. Colleges will never see it. A low PSAT just means there's work to do, and now you know where.
Don't coast on a high score, either. The SAT goes higher than the PSAT and includes harder questions at the top. A 1450 PSAT is a great sign. It isn't a 1450 SAT until your kid earns one.
Other Frequently Asked Questions
What is a good PSAT score for a sophomore? Sophomore scores don't count for National Merit, so the PSAT is purely a practice run in 10th grade. College Board's 10th grade benchmarks are 430 in Reading and Writing and 480 in Math. A score around 1050 puts a sophomore at roughly the 75th percentile for their grade. More useful than either number: what the skill areas show, and how much of the math they've covered in school yet.
What is the average PSAT score? For juniors, the middle of the pack is a little under 1000. Your student's report shows the exact average for all testers over the last three years, right next to their score.
Does the 10th grade PSAT count for National Merit? No. Only the junior-year PSAT/NMSQT does.
What does an asterisk next to the Selection Index mean? It means the student either didn't meet National Merit's entry requirements or the score is for guidance only. Talk to the school counselor if you see one.
My kid was sick on test day. Now what? Talk to your school counselor as soon as possible about National Merit's alternate entry process. For everything else, it doesn't matter much. A practice SAT will give you the same information.
Want a second set of eyes?
Send us your student's PSAT score report and we'll do a free review. We'll look at the skill areas, what they're taking in school and whether the SAT or ACT makes more sense, then give you a realistic plan for the first test. Request a free PSAT score review
