SAT vs ACT vs New SAT

Caveat 1—the PSAT/NMSQT

The PSAT or “Pre” SAT is NOT the SAT used for college entrance. The “PSAT” is typically offered to students in the sophomore or Junior year. The Preliminary SAT is also called the “PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test” (PSAT/NMSQT) administered by the College Board and cosponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC). Approximately 3.5 million students take the PSAT/NMSQT each year.

Bottom line: the PSAT is BOTH a practice SAT that can also be used for National Merit Scholarships and for SAT PRACTIC. It cannot be used for actual college application and the scores are not sent to colleges—only the actual SAT is accepted for college entrance.

The PSAT/NMSQT exam will be offered in Oct 2015 and it will be based on the content for the NEW SAT. This will be the first official look at the new SAT content. But the student should keep in mind that the new SAT content is still testing the exact same skills as it always has: math, reading, logic, grammar, and vocabulary.