Helping Student Prepare for the PSAT and SAT!

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Helping Student Prepare for the PSAT and SAT!

• Rae Jean Johnson

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How important is the PSAT?
It isnt really as important as the mom above
suggests, but the PSAT DOES a) indicate how well
students might do on an SAT and b) determine if
students are eligible for a National Merit
Scholarship Award.
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Does the PSAT determine my future?
Students are sometimes surprised to learn how
important standardized tests can be. Scores may
not determine whether students get into heaven,
but they CAN determine if students get into the
university theyd like or if they will get into
the particular programs that interest them.
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What is a good PSAT score?

• The answer to this depends on students goals.
• National Merit Scholars need a Selection Index
  (score) of 200.
• Students need to look at that schools websites
  for their requirements for the SAT (they wont
  list a PSAT score!).

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Just the facts

• The PSAT will be given Oct. 12 to all sophomores
  and juniors.
• The PSAT is similar to the SAT except there is no
  essay and the test is a bit shorter

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SAT changes since our day

• The best score is now 2400.
• An essay is now required on the SAT.
• No more analogies!
• Paired reading passages.
• Experimental section.

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(No Transcript)
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Whats on the PSAT?

• Math
• basic math, Algebra I and II, geometry
• Reading
• Sentence completion questions, critical reading
• Writing
• Identifying sentence errors, improving sentences,
  improving paragraphs (No essay this is on the
  SAT)

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To improve their scores, students should.

• Understand test format
• Learn and practice strategies
• Read challenging texts
• Actively study SAT vocabulary words.
• Practice, practice, practice!

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PSAT test format

• Five sections
• Critical reading (25 Min.)
• Mathematics (25 Min.)
• Critical reading (25 Min.)
• Mathematics (25 Min.)
• Writing Skills (30 Min.)
• The SAT has TEN sections!

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PSAT (and SAT) Rules to know

• Every section is timed, so pacing is important.
• Scoring right (wrong x .25)
• Students may omit questions
• Pencils are required.
• Calculators are allowed (please encourage the
  kids to bring one!)

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Critical reading

• Sentence Completion
• Short passages
• Long passages
• Dual (either long or short) passages

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Sentence Completion

• Questions are arranged in increasing difficulty.
• Effective strategies include
• Step One Cover the answers.
• Step Two Speak for yourself.
• Step Three Classify blanks , -, or n.
• Step Four Use context clues to eliminate answer
  choices.
• Step Five POE!

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Practice!

• 8. The very thought of her eating meat was
  -----to Lara, who had been a strict vegetarian
  and animal rights activist for many years.

• gratifying
• deleterious
• pedestrian
• anathema
• cathartic

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Two Blanks Twice as Easy!!

• 1. Cover the answers.
• 2. Look at the second blank first.
• 3. POE that blank.
• 4. Then look at the other blank at ONLY the
  answers you have remaining.

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Example

• Frederick Douglass skills as ___________ were
  never more evident than when he spoke __________,
  delivering unrehearsed speeches of unsurpassed
  eloquence and clarity

• An explicator . belligerently
• An orator cryptically
• An obfuscator improvisationally
• A diplomat censoriously
• A rhetorician extemporaneously

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Long passages

• Read the blurb!
• Speed read to get the general idea of the
  passage.
• Answer fetch questions first (vocabulary in
  context, antecedents, details, etc.)
• Then answer the reasoning questions.

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Dual passages

• Skim the questions to see whether more can be
  answered by passage 1 or 2 then begin with that
  passage.
• Read that passage and then answer the questions
  for that passage first.
• POE the answers for the 1st passage.
• Then read passage 2 and answer questions for that
  passage.

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Math Strategies

• Format
• Every math section begins with reference
  information that includes things like area of a
  circle, volume of a rectangle, etc.
• Questions are arranged in order of increasing
  difficulty.
• One section will include grid-in problems. These
  are also arranged in increasing difficulty.

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Objectives

• Students should be able to..
• Ballpark
• PITA
• POE
• POOD
• Pace yourself

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Special Topic Grid-Ins

• Start on the left of the grid.
• DO NOT ROUND!
• Bubble improper fractions instead of mixed
  numbers (3/2 would be correct. 1 ½ will look like
  11/2 to the program!)

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Math

• Expect to be rewarded for being wrong! ETS knows
  how students will work the problems and answer
  choices will include the wrong answers the kids
  will get.

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Math PITA (plug in the answer)

• The answer choices are arranged either from least
  to greatest or from greatest to least, so start
  with C when plugging in answers!

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Plugging in Tips

• Try numbers that make the math easy (2, 5, 10
  usually work well.)
• Dont worry about picking a bad number. You can
  always change the number and try again.
• Make sure that your numbers satisfy any
  conditions in the problem. (If the question says
  to use an odd integer, use an odd integer!)

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Try plugging in your own answer here.

• Which of the following expressions represents an
  odd integer if b is an odd integer?
• A. b-3
• B. 2b-3
• C. 2b-4
• D. 3b-1
• E. 3b1

• Plug in 5
• 5-32
• 10-37
• 10-46
• 15-114
• 15116

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Try ballparking this one!

• After a sale at the local department store, the
  total number of television sets in private homes
  in Greene County rose from 17,800 to 24,000. By
  approximately what percent did the total number
  of television sets increase?
• A. 16
• B. 35
• C. 50
• D. 65
• E. 75

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No calculators!

• Use estimates started about 18,000ended at
  24,000, a difference of about 6,000. Is 6,000
  about 50 of 18,000? No way! So, that
  eliminates answers C, D, and E.
• 6,000 is about 1/3 of 18,000 so B is best!

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Know your own POOD!

• Personal
• Order
• Of
• Difficulty

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POOD

• Know your areas of strength and START there on
  the test.
• No one knows where you bubble first or last!

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Writing Multiple Choice

• Error Identification
• Improving Sentences
• Improving Paragraphs

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Error Identification and Improving Sentences

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Understanding the Questions

• Arranged in order of increasing difficulty
• Expect 1/5 of the answers to be E no error!
• POE the answers EVERY TIME!

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Rules to know Verbs

• Subject Verb Agreement
• 112
• 222
• 122
• 212
• 1 means singular
• 2 means plural

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Rules to know Verbs

• Subject-verb agreement
• 1 or 1 1
• 2 or 2 2
• 1 or 2 2
• 2 or 1 1
• The conjunction can be either, neither, nor, or,
  not only, but also

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Rules to know Verbs

• Collective nouns a singular noun that refers to
  a group of people and takes a singular verb.
• The band (was/were) performing.
• The class (is/are) behaving badly.

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Rules to know Verbs

• Indefinite pronouns as subjects
• These are SINGULAR pronouns
• Each, everybody, neither, much, everyone, either,
  nothing, everything, everywhere, anyone, someone,
  no one, etc.
• Each if the boys (is/are) doing (his/their)
  homework.
• Someone forgot (his or her/their) notebook.
• Either if the options (is/are) fine with me.

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Rules to know Verbs

• These pronouns can be either singular or plural
  depending on the noun the pronoun refers to
• All, most, some, more, any, less, none
• All of the pie (is/are) gone.
• All of the students (is/are) asleep.

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Rules to know Verbs

• Parallelism
• Similar grammatical structure
• Keep lists in the same form throughout a
  sentence.
• The Halloween part was a great success the
  children enjoyed bobbing for apples, playing arty
  games, and to wear costumes.

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Rules to know Verbs

• Keep verbs in the same tense throughout the
  sentence!
• Yesterday, much to the dismay of his wife, the
  new anchorperson has worn a red necktie that did
  not match his green suit.

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Rules to know Pronouns

• Know this chart

SUBJECT PRONOUNS OBJECT PRONOUNS POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
He We She You They Who It I Him us Her you Them whom It me His our/s Her/s your/s Their/s whose Its my/mine
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Rules to know Pronouns

• Use subject pronouns where subjects go in
  sentences
• She is going to the store.
• I am going to the store.
• She and I are going to the store.
• NOTMe and her are going to the store!
• Which one? This is she/her.

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Rules to know Pronouns

• Use object pronouns as direct objects, indirect
  objects, and objects of prepositions.
• Sue gave him a rose.
• Sue gave me a rose.
• Sue gave him and me a rose.
• Not Sue gave him and I a rose.

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Rules to know Pronouns

• Use possessive pronouns in front of gerund (a
  verb -ing that acts like a noun)
• Her failing the class is a concern.
• His sighing annoys me.

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Rules to know Pronouns

• Who and Whom refer to a person only
• When is used only to refer to a time.
• Where refers to only a place
• A sentence can use one or you but only one per
  sentence

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Rules to know Pronouns

• A pronoun must clearly replace only one noun.
• Billy saw Carol and Jane near the pool and
  flirted with her shamelessly. Who???
• They saw their parents at the school and talked
  to them until they got there from the trip.
  Huh???

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Rules to Know Parallel structure

• Keep parts of the sentence in the same form
• I like to walk, to run, and swimming.

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Improving Paragraphs

• There are three kinds of questions here
• Revision questions
• How can the paragraph be improved organization,
  adding a topic sentence, eliminating an
  extraneous sentence, etc.
• Combination questions
• Best way to combine sentences
• Weird questions
• Split paragraphs
• Join paragraphs
• Adding topics

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Whats Next?

• Practice!
• Use resources like 11 Real SATs, Rock the SAT,
  etc!