1. PSAT TESTING IS COMING….
TEST DATE:
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2017

2. Today you are receiving your Student Guide
What’s inside?
The Green Side
*Everything you could ever want to know about the PSAT
*Test-taking advice and tips
*An official practice test
The Blue Side
*National Merit Scholarship Program Information

3. The PSAT is highly relevant to your future success and focuses on the skills and knowledge at the heart of education.
It is practice for the SAT and it measures:
What you learn in school
What you need to succeed in college

4. Be prepared… Get a good night’s sleep and eat a healthy breakfast
Bring two #2 pencils and your calculator
Report directly to Advisory for testing

5. What Not to Bring Phones (leave your phones at home or in your locker)
Any devices, including smartwatches, that can be used to record, transmit, receive or play back audio, photographic, text, or video content
Protractors, compasses, rulers
Highlighters, colored pens, colored pencils
Pamphlets or papers of any kind
Dictionaries or other books
Food and drinks—including bottled water

6. Attention Juniors…
The PSAT has National Merit Scholarship implications.
SBHS has 4 National Merit Semifinalists in the 2018 National Merit Scholarship Program this year.
Congratulations to seniors William Helmrath, Cody Kim, Owen Poisson, and Julie Shorey.

7. Section 1: Reading --- 60 minutes
What to expect…
Section 1: Reading minutes
5 minute break
Section 2: Writing and Language minutes
Section 3: Math with NO Calculator minutes
Section 4: Math with Calculator minutes

8. How to Get Ready
You don’t have to discover secret tricks or cram the night before.
The same habits and choices that lead to success in school will help you get ready for the PSAT and other tests in the SAT Suite of Assessments.
The best way to prepare is to:
Take challenging courses
Do your homework
Prepare for tests and quizzes
Ask and answer lots of questions
In short, take charge of your education and learn as much as you can.

9. It’s About the Everyday
The Reading Test will ask you questions that are a lot like ones you’ll experience in a lively, thoughtful, evidence-based discussion.
It’s About the Everyday
The Reading Test focuses on the skills and knowledge at the heart of education: the stuff you’ve been learning in school, the stuff you’ll need to succeed in college. It’s about how you take in, think about, and use information.
It’s not about how well you memorize facts and definitions, so you won’t need to use flashcards or insider tricks or spend all night cramming.

10. Quick Facts
All Reading Test questions are multiple choice and based on passages.
Some passages are paired with other passages.
Informational graphics, such as tables, graphs, and charts, accompany some passages—but no math is required.
Prior topic-specific knowledge is never tested.
The Reading Test is the first part of the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section.

11. It’s About the Everyday
The Writing and Language Test asks you to be an editor and improve passages that were written especially for the test—and that include deliberate errors.
It’s About the Everyday
When you take the Writing and Language Test, you’ll do three things that people do all the time when they write and edit:
Read.
Find mistakes and weaknesses.
Fix them.

12. Quick Facts All questions are multiple choice and based on passages.
Some passages are accompanied by informational graphics, such as tables, graphs, and charts—but no math is required.
Prior topic knowledge is never tested.
The Writing and Language Test is the second part of the Evidence-Based Reading and Writing section.

13. It’s About the Real World
The Math Test covers a range of math practices, with an emphasis on problem solving, modeling, using tools strategically, and using algebraic structure.
It’s About the Real World
Instead of testing you on every math topic there is, the PSAT asks you to use the math that you’ll rely on most in all sorts of situations. Questions on the Math Test are designed to mirror the problem solving and modeling you’ll do in:
College math, science, and social science courses
The jobs that you hold
Your personal life
For instance, to answer some questions you’ll need to use one or two steps—because in the real world a single calculation is rarely enough to get the job done.

14. Quick Facts
Most math questions will be multiple choice, but some—called grid-ins—ask you to come up with the answer rather than select the answer.
The Math Test is divided into two portions:
Math Test–Calculator and Math Test–No Calculator.
Some parts of the test include several questions about a single scenario.

15. Focus
The Math Test will focus in depth on two of the areas of math that play the biggest role in a wide range of college majors and careers:
1. Heart of Algebra, which focuses on the mastery of linear equations and systems.
2. Problem Solving and Data Analysis, which is about being quantitatively literate.
There will also be some Passport to Advanced Math questions; these require the manipulation of complex equations.

16. During the Test
You will be allowed to have only these items on your desk:
A test book
An answer sheet
No. 2 pencils with erasers
An approved calculator—during one of the math sections only

17. Really, Really Important
You will be dismissed immediately and your scores will be canceled if you use your phone or if it makes a noise—even during breaks.
Your phone may also be confiscated and inspected.
Leave your phone at home.

18. NO PENALTY FOR GUESSING
PSAT
October 11, 2017
Emphasis on skills that are most important for college and career readiness and success
Emphasis on the meaning of words in a variety of contexts
Focus on math that matters most
NO PENALTY FOR GUESSING
ANSWER EVERY QUESTION

19. Do your best…