The vast majority of students do not need and, in our opinion, probably should not do PSAT tutoring. Here’s why:
The PSAT that most students take in sophomore year does not count for national merit status even if they get a perfect score. Only junior-year PSAT scores make a student eligible for national merit consideration. So, if a student wants to feel comfortable taking the sophomore PSAT, there is no reason to do any tutoring. Read more about the National Merit Scholarship here.
Although scores for the junior year PSAT are considered for national merit status, tutoring is usually not worth it for most students, particularly for those in New Jersey in pursuit of the national merit scholarship. A student needs to get approximately one of the top 600 PSAT scores in New Jersey to become a Semifinalist. Only the top 600 make a student eligible to compete to become a scholarship recipient.
New Jersey is tied with Massachusetts for the highest PSAT scores in the U.S. Because of this, getting one of the top 600 PSAT scores in the state takes a lot of work. Students in New Jersey need a perfect score or very close to be considered for the national merit scholarship.
Suppose a student becomes a Semifinalist based on their PSAT score. In that case, they still have only a 50% chance of receiving the National Merit Scholarship. There are roughly 16,000 Semifinalists in the U.S., and about half of them (approx. 7,600) will receive the National Merit Scholarship.
Lastly, if a student does receive a National Merit Scholarship, it is significant but not a game-changer with college admissions. What is much more important than being a National Merit Scholar? High school GPA, SAT or ACT scores, and SAT subject test scores (at the best schools). And the one-time scholarship award of $2,500 is typically less than what the tutoring would cost to score high enough to be considered for it.
In summary, to be in the National Merit Scholarship competition, students must get high scores on their junior year PSAT (particularly in New Jersey). Because of this, the status is less helpful than other admissions criteria. The scholarship is a relatively small, one-time award. It does not make sense for most students to tutor their junior year PSAT to pursue National Merit status.
If a student is already getting near-perfect scores on PSAT practice tests, then it can make sense to do some prep to help ensure they get a top score on test day. If they’re already there or close, go for it! It’s worth a little effort to get the slight boost that the National Merit Scholarship can give.
In addition, some companies give additional scholarships to any employee’s child who becomes a National Merit Finalist or recipient. Suppose you work at a company that does so, and your child is relatively close to the required score to become a National Merit Semifinalist. In that case, there is more financial incentive to pursue this award.
SAT/ACT tutoring or academic enrichment tutoring is your best bet. The primary determinants of college admissions are high school GPA and SAT/ACT scores. If you come from a well-known high school, then your GPA is more critical because colleges are familiar with the rigor of your high school.
Suppose you come from a lesser-known high school. In that case, SAT/ACT scores are more important because the college is less familiar with the quality of education at that particular high school. Maybe the SAT fits you better than the ACT based on baseline scores from both tests. If you’re doing SAT tutoring, you’re also doing PSAT tutoring since the SAT and PSAT test has the same content.
Probably. For most students, it’s free to take the PSAT administered at their school. Taking the PSAT has a few benefits:
Reading and Writing section
Math section
Total
Honestly, no. The PSAT and SAT test the same content, but the PSAT is slightly shorter than the SAT, so scores on the PSAT have more variance than SAT scores (which still have significant variance). To get an accurate baseline score for your SAT, you really need to take a full-length, official past SAT.
The National Merit Scholarship Program aims to recognize and reward academic excellence and achievement.
Students can receive recognition (as Commended students or Semifinalists) for high PSAT scores. The Semifinalists then compete to become Finalists and then National Merit Scholarship recipients. Receiving a National Merit Scholarship has a few potential benefits:
Of the roughly 50,000 students recognized by the National Merit Scholarship Program, the bottom 34,000 will be “Commended” and the top 16,000 will be “Semifinalists.”
The number of National Merit seats (both for Commended and Semifinalist status) available to students in a given state is determined by what percent of the U.S.’s graduating seniors that state has. For instance, of the 1,511,469 students who took the PSAT in 2019, only 16,453 of them were recognized as Semifinalists. Because New Jersey has 3.6% of the U.S.’s graduating seniors, it got 3.6% (which is 594) of the 16,453 available Semifinalist seats. The students in every state are arranged in descending order according to their PSAT scores. However many Semifinalist seats are available to students in that state, they take that number of students from the top of the list and award them Semifinalist status. For example, because in 2019 there were 594 Semifinalist spots allocated to New Jersey, only the top 594 highest PSAT scorers in New Jersey were awarded the Semifinalist recognition.
Because the Commended and Semifinalist designations are awarded based upon a student’s PSAT score in comparison to the scores of all other students in a given state, the difficulty of receiving these designations varies considerably based upon which state a student lives.
For example, students in Massachusetts and New Jersey typically need the highest PSAT scores in the U.S. in order to qualify. In 2019, students in both states needed perfect or near-perfect scores in order to become Semifinalists (they needed an NMSQT score of 222 or above out of a possible 228 points). In comparison, students from North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming needed only a score of 209 or above to become Semifinalists.
To convert a PSAT score into an NMSQT score (which is used to rank students for the National Merit Scholarship program), you take the three subsection scores of the PSAT (Reading, Writing/Language, and Math), double them, and add those together.
For instance, a student with a near perfect score on the PSAT of 36 on the Reading (out of 38), 36 on Writing/Language (out of 38), and 35.5 on the Math (out of 38) would have a 215 as their NMSQT score. Thus, in NJ, students can miss a combined 3 subsection points on the PSAT (so they could get a 37 in all three sections — out of 38 in each section — and just hit the Semifinalist cutoff of 222 on NMSQT selection index).
Thus, it’s important to note that, while Math scores are 1/2 of a student’s PSAT score (Verbal out of 760 + Math out of 760 = 1520 possible points on the PSAT) and also 1/2 of a student’s SAT score (Verbal out of 800 + Math out of 800 = 1600 possible points on the regular SAT), Math scores are only 1/3 of the total NMSQT score used for the National Merit Scholarship Program. Thus, on the PSAT, the Verbal section (comprised of the Reading section and the Writing/Language section) is twice as important as the Math section for the final NMSQT score.
The timeline is as follows:
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