Well, with the PSAT, you cannot merely rely on memorizing countless formulae and keep solving numerous problems blindly. Studying smartly is the only solution. and most importantly, you need to be consistent with your practice and preparation.
You cannot simply leave off in between and constantly waste your time bringing yourself back to being motivated. You need to adopt strategies that usually successful students follow, which are more realistic.
Thus, let us dive deep into those successful strategies and study tips that would ensure you have a brilliant attempt at your PSAT,
1. PSAT is just like the SAT
PSAT is not simply what it is termed as – the Practice Test. If you truly wish to be a top performer in your SAT, then you will have to give equal weightage to your PSAT as well. It follows the same pattern, style, format, everything just like the SAT.
You can use it as your diagnostic tool that would help you determine your area of improvement and even your strengths to perform really well in your SATs.
2. Focus on Quality over Quantity
You really don’t need to read every other book on the shelf available for PSAT. Instead, you need to stick to only that material which will offer you quality practice. The best part is to start with the official College board books and other reference materials.
Also, since you woud be practicing only from the quality resources now, you also need to be more analytical of how you are approaching the exam. You need to time your practice tests and be more realistic to yourself.
3. Work on your test-taking abilities
So, the PSAT being similar to the SATs, you need to work on your time management skills as well as your critical thinking, logical reasoning and analytical skills and that too all of this under pressure.
And that is why, you need to treat every practice test just like your final PSAT (or SAT) test and sincerely sit for the test throughout timing yourself. also, make sure to avoid all sorts of distractions.
4. Focus on Concepts and core skills
In the PSAT, you need to work on test-specific strategies. You need to have a strong foundational knowledge of all the sections that you would appearing for, that is, reading, writing, grammar, and math.
For example, in maths, you need to focus on your problem solving skills along with data analysis. Also, while reading passages, make sure to focus on the main idea and the tone of the same, and so on.
5. Make sure you know your weaknesses very well
Everyone comes with their own set of challenges and weaknesses. and this could be with any of the sections in the PSAT. Instead of shying away from them, it is better to confront them and keep working on them to mitigate them entirely.
This helps in mastering the topic faster and scoring really well in your PSAT and thus SAT.
6. Do some mental preparation
It is really important to have the right mindset for your preparation. You should not overload yourself with too much information and cause burnout. Make sure to set achievable goals and stay consistent. And at the same time, it is important to focus on some good rest and freshen up.
7. Strategic mock tests
You should be focusing on just solving mock tests, but solving them strategically. You must time them and take them as you are appearing for your final test. Also, in the end, it is equally important to analyze them so you know where you made the mistakes and review them.
8. Personalized expert Guidance
Well, this is a personal choice. But it really helps to have really good and expert guidance that would save you enough time and also help you work on your doubts and problems better. Also you keep receiving expert advice from time to time and gain access to their high quality resources as well. This is where EduQuest comes into the picture.
EduQuest is one of the finest PSAT preparation institutes that is known for their high quality programs that are curated just to help students like you to do better and improve constantly in your PSAT and SATs.
They combine personalized mentoring styles with tailored learning strategies with realistic mock tests.