What’s So Easy About the PSAT, Anyway?

If you're wondering how "easy" a test or question is, you're looking at it the wrong way.

The PSAT is easier than the SAT. Kind of. The College Board doesn’t actually say that anywhere, although it feels like the PSAT is easier than the SAT. The entire way the PSAT is set up makes it seem easier.

The College Board only allows juniors to take the PSAT/NMSQT, while seniors can take the SAT. As part of the entire “SAT Suite of Assessments,” the two tests come after the PSAT 8/9 and the PSAT 10. The College Board says each level of these linked tests measures grade-level reading and math skills. (The PSAT 10 is the exact same as the PSAT/NMSQT, just taken by sophomores. I’m just repeating what the College Board itself says.)

Then there’s the scoring scale. The PSAT’s max score is 1520, 80 points shy of the SAT’s 1600. Officially, a student’s PSAT score represents what they would have scored had they taken the SAT on the same day. Once you work through the time paradoxes needed to grasp that concept, you see a perfect score on the PSAT is not equivalent to a perfect score on the …