This year, Wayland High School will host the Preliminary SAT (PSAT) on Saturday, Oct. 15. Students who signed up for the test will answer a variety of math and English questions within a period of two hours and 45 minutes. For some students, the PSAT on Oct. 15 will be their first experience with a long standardized test, while other students have taken a PSAT or SAT before and will know what to expect.

Some students are interested in taking the PSAT because top scores will have a chance of being awarded the National Merit Scholarship, which gives the winning students $2,500 of tuition money for their freshman year of college. Although only juniors are eligible to receive the National Merit Scholarship, some sophomores like Kanmani Sekhar believe that taking the PSAT this year will help them be more prepared to take the SAT in the future.

“Scholarships are definitely something I should be thinking about for the future, and I’ve never taken a very formal test before, so maybe [taking the PSAT] will prepare me for the actual SAT next year,” Sekhar said.

Even if students don’t receive the National Merit Scholarship, the PSAT grading provides students with an in-depth rubric on subjects they missed points on. This will give some students, like junior Anika Frutman, perspective on what areas they should focus on while studying for the SAT.

“I decided to take [the PSAT] because I don’t know what I’m getting into for the actual SAT,” Frutman said. “This is a stepping off point to see what I need to work on [to prepare for the SAT].”

One part of the PSAT that students find particularly challenging is the question phrasing. Frutman hopes that her experiences with the phrasing of questions on advanced placement (AP) tests will be similar to the phrasing of questions on the PSAT since both tests are organized by the College Board. However, for students without AP class experience, there are other places they can go for practice.

“There are no PSAT specific study guides or anything like that,” WHS guidance counselor Sara Bodi said. “For kids who want to get ready, you can look at SAT prep stuff online. In Naviance, which all of our students sophomores and up have access to, there’s also a program called Methodist test prep that is available to students.”

Since students’ PSAT scores aren’t going to be used during the college admissions process, Bodi cautions students against over-preparing for the test at the risk of their own wellbeing.

“Don’t stress because only you see your [PSAT] scores and use them to get ready for the SAT,” Bodi said. “[Remember to] take good care of yourself too. There’s no harm that can come from taking the PSAT, so there’s no reason to worry about it.”