Why the PSAT is more important than the SAT (for scholarships)

While high school seniors are hard at work studying for the SAT, many would be shocked to know they could’ve avoided this unwanted stress. Little do they know that the most important test (for scholarships, anyway) has already long passed.
One letter can be deceiving.
The “P” in the “PSAT” test taken by high school sophomores each October can leave many students thinking that it’s just that—a preliminary SAT. A practice test.
But the PSAT can, in some cases, be the most important test a high school student will ever take – may even be more important than the SAT itself.
The PSAT names the highest achieving students in the nation to qualify as National Merit Semifinalists (who can go on to become Finalists). This title and honor can, at many colleges, result in larger amounts of scholarship than any amount of scholarship received from the SAT itself.
Yet attaining the coveted title of “National Merit Finalist” — and the hefty scholarship awards that easily come along with it — isn’t as daunting of a task as it seems.
Unlike the SAT, in which students often constantly strive to bring up their scores by just a few more points, the PSAT requires that students merely reach the designated threshold to be named a Semifinalist. Thresholds are determined by state and are determined after the test occurs; however, by looking at previous state cutoffs, it’s fairly easy to predict what threshold a student will need to meet. For the Class of 2014, the highest cutoff was 224 (equivalent to approximately a 2240 SAT score) and the lowest was 203 (equivalent to approximately a 2030 SAT score).
With the PSAT, there is no drive to aim for the perfect 240 as many students do for the SAT (perfect 2400), hoping it raises their chance for admission or scholarship; rather, they must only aim for the threshold — a more manageable task, albeit a very difficult one still (especially since the PSAT is a one-time-only test compared to the SAT).
To make matters better, the PSAT itself is a shortened and simplified version of the SAT. Students first have the opportunity to get a feel for the test’s format by taking a practice PSAT their sophomore year in October. After receiving this baseline score, students can then manageably study or perhaps even take a prep class before they take the PSAT again their junior year — the one shot they have at attaining a qualifying score.
For the students named Semifinalists at the beginning of their senior year, they can complete an application to become a Finalist; most Semifinalists become Finalists if they complete the application and requirements. By becoming a National Merit Finalist, the world of scholarships opens drastically.
Suddenly, it doesn’t matter if you got a 2200 or 2300 on your SAT. All that matters is you’re a National Merit Finalist, and you get a higher tier scholarship at your state school than the kid who received a near perfect score on his SAT but wasn’t a National Merit Finalist.
For example, the University of Oklahoma, which is ranked number one for its number of National Merit Finalists enrolled, offers a near full-ride of scholarship to National Merit Finalists. This scholarship, valued at $101,000 for out-of-state students, is more than three times the amount of the next highest scholarship: a $31,200 scholarship for students who achieve a 34 ACT score (approximately a 2250 SAT).
Translate the approximate 2250 SAT score into a PSAT score and it’d be about a 225.
And, with the highest cutoff being a 224 to qualify as a National Merit Semifinalist, that means that it’s much easier to attain an equivalently lower score on the PSAT and attain a near-full-ride than it is to achieve a higher score on the SAT and only attain a third of that scholarship money.
Say you received a 2200 on your SAT after studying relentlessly. That’s a $20,000 scholarship from the University of Oklahoma. But say you received that equivalent, a 220, on your PSAT.
Depending on your state, that’s likely a $101,000 scholarship from the University of Oklahoma as a National Merit Finalist. Yet the University of Oklahoma isn’t the only school to offer a hefty scholarship package to its National Merit Finalists. If a school offers scholarship for being a National Merit Finalist, it often is the highest scholarship their school offers—by quite a bit.
So instead of stressing out over the looming SAT, maybe high school students need to realize that their ticket for a near full-ride scholarship lies in just one simple preliminary test—the practice SAT.
And maybe we need to realize that one letter does make a difference — often the difference between a $101,000 and $31,200 scholarship.

By Annie Schugart