SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips

If you're looking for PSAT practice materials, you've come to the right place. This guide contains all free PSAT materials, which you can download—including 10 PSAT practice test PDFs.

Unfortunately, since the PSAT's 2023 makeover, the College Board hasn't released a ton of practice tests. Luckily, though, you can still use old PSAT practice tests effectively to prepare. Before getting to the practice questions, we'll go over some of the changes made to the PSAT in 2015 and 2023. If you care about your PSAT score, read carefully so you don't waste your time studying the wrong things!

The PSAT underwent even more changes in 2023. Here's what you need to know.

How Did the PSAT Change in 2023?

The College Board began rolling out its new Digital SAT Suite of Assessments in spring 2023, and so the PSAT/NMSQT and the PSAT 8/9 are now fully digital. The PSAT 10 will make the switch in spring 2024.

To use old practice tests effectively, you’ll need to know how the PSAT changed when it went digital. Let’s start by going over some of the major changes made to the PSAT in 2023. 

The PSAT now has two test sections instead of three:

• Reading and Writing
• Math

This differs from the three sections that were on the 2015-2023 SAT (Reading, Writing and Language, and Math). Questions about reading, writing, and language will now all be within the same section.

Length is another big change: the new PSAT is 2 hours and 14 minutes long, which is about 30 minutes shorter than it was 2015-2023. A shorter test is already great news, but there’s more—there are also fewer questions! Students will answer 98 questions on the entire PSAT, which is 41 less than the test had 2015-2023. 

Here’s a breakdown of how much time students will have on each section of the test:

The PSAT will still be made up of four sections, total—two for Reading and Writing and two for Math—but these sections are now called modules. Each module is timed individually, so you can expect to spend 32 minutes on each Reading and Writing module and 35 minutes on each Math module.

Since there are two modules per section, you’ll have to complete the first module in each section before moving on to the next one. This may seem pointless, but there’s actually a big benefit to this breakdown: adaptive testing. The first module in each test section will include questions with varying difficulty, ranging from easy to hard, and how you perform on the first modules in each section will determine the types of questions on the second module. So, if you take the first module of a section and breeze through all the easy questions but struggle with the medium and hard questions, your next module will adapt and offer questions based on your demonstrated ability.

It’s not all changes, though! The PSAT still measures the same skills and knowledge as the 2015-2023 test. This means the test will still measure practical skills and knowledge students need to know to succeed in college and their careers. 

The way the questions are structured and formatted on the test is different, though. The digital PSAT has been designed to ask questions more directly and efficiently, so you can expect more direct and concise wording and less passages to read per question. 

Below, we'll take a closer look at the content and skills changes on each of the PSAT sections:

PSAT Reading and Writing Changes

Like mentioned above, the PSAT will still test the same knowledge and skills that the 2015-2023 PSAT tested. The major changes to the PSAT are to its form and structure. Here is a brief overview of the changes made to the Reading and Writing section in 2023:

• There are now four broad categories on the Reading and Writing section: Craft & Structure, Information & Ideas, Standard English Conventions, and Expression of Ideas
• The questions on the PSAT are designed to be more direct, so they will use more concise wording.
• Reading passages are shorter in length.
• Each question is tied to just one passage. This is much different from the 2015-2023 PSAT, which had a few long passages with multiple questions per passage. 

The following official sample question shows how the PSAT will ask about your understanding of a relatively common vocabulary word in the context of a larger passage: 

Below is an official sample question that shows how the PSAT will ask about your understanding of English grammar and punctuation:

PSAT Math Changes

Here are some of the main ways the PSAT Math section changed in 2023:

• There are four categories on the Math section: Algebra, Advanced Math, Problem-Solving & Data Analysis, and Geometry & Trigonometry
• Calculators can now be used on the entire Math section. Woohoo! Students can bring their own approved calculators or use the one built in to the PSAT digital testing software. 
• Word problems are more direct and concise

Here’s a sample Math question from the College Board:

Now that you're aware of the major changes that happened to the PSAT in 2015 and 2023, you can adapt your approach as you prepare with practice materials from the last few years. Read on to see the PSAT practice tests, and learn how to use these tests to get a high PSAT score.

Official PSAT Practice Tests (Current Version)

To get the most authentic PSAT test experience, we recommend downloading the free Bluebook App and using the full-length practice tests offered by the College Board. These are the best resources available for the PSAT now that it’s delivered digitally and with new content.

• Official PSAT Practice Test — Score Your Test — Answer Explanations
  
  

In addition, the College Board created an online prep program in partnership with Khan Academy. While this program is geared specifically toward the SAT, it can help you prepare for the PSAT, too, since the two tests are so similar.

Official PSAT Practice Tests (2015-2023, Old Version)

Although free practice materials for the current version of the PSAT are rather limited, you can still find a large number of practice test PDFs for the old, 2015-2023 version of the PSAT. Find the tests below, and then read on for some tips on how to make the most of both new and old practice tests.

From 2015-2023, the College Board released two PSAT practice tests with answer keys. You can download both tests as PDFs along with the scoring guides and answer explanations to use after you finish your practice testing:

• PSAT Practice Test 1 — Score Your Test — Answer Explanations

• PSAT Practice Test 2 — Score Your Test — Answer Explanations

(The two PSAT 10 tests on the College Board website are identical to these two.)

Even though they’re now outdated, these official practice tests from 2015-2023 are still useful because the material on the test is still largely the same. If you need even more practice, though, read on for how to use even older practice tests to boost your PSAT prep.

Official PSAT Practice Tests (Pre-2015, Old Version)

This is the oldest version of the PSAT that was based off of the old SAT. You can learn more about the pre-2016 SAT format in this article.

These practice tests still give you good exposure to the type of content you'll see on the 2023 PSAT. However, some question formats are outdated, so use these only after you've worked your way through all of the more current resources we linked above.

With that said, we’ve compiled eight pre-2015 PSAT practice test PDFs for you to practice with. Download them here (note that the answer keys are included in the last few pages of each PDF):

• PSAT Practice Test PDF 1
• PSAT Practice Test PDF 2
• PSAT Practice Test PDF 3
• PSAT Practice Test PDF 4
• PSAT Practice Test PDF 5
• PSAT Practice Test PDF 6
• PSAT Practice Test PDF 7
• PSAT Practice Test PDF 8

You can also find decent-quality PSAT questions from Peterson’s, which offers two practice PSAT tests if you create a free account with them.

As you know, these older PSAT materials don't reflect the format or content of the current version of the PSAT. However, most still test the same fundamental skills and knowledge. So how can you use these old PSAT questions to get ready for the PSAT?

How to Use PSAT Practice Tests Effectively: 3 Key Tips

Regardless of whether you're using current or old PSAT practice tests, it's important you know how to use them effectively. Our three tips below can help you make the most of PSAT practice tests in your prep.

#1: Take the Test in a Realistic Environment

Part of getting the most out of PSAT practice tests is making them feel like the real deal.

On test day, you'll take the PSAT in a quiet classroom with other test takers, and you’ll all be completing the test using computers. Therefore, you'll want to find a similar environment to take your practice tests in, such as a library with a quiet computer lab.

If you try to take a practice test at a park or at the same time your family's watching TV, you'll likely find it difficult to focus, thereby lowering your score. This score will not be an accurate snapshot of your strengths since you didn't take the test in a realistic environment.

Additionally, it's best to take each test in one sitting instead of spread up over several days. This way, you'll not only get a realistic testing experience but can also get used to the length of the test by building up your test-taking endurance.

#2: Abide by Official Time Limits

While it's important to take each PSAT practice test in one sitting, it's also important to take the test in accordance with official PSAT time limits. What do I mean by this? Basically, never give yourself more time on any section, as doing so can dramatically raise your score and give you an inflated sense of how you're actually scoring on the PSAT.

To help you out, here are the time limits on each section of the PSAT, along with the approximate time you'll have per question:

The Math section offers the most time and has the fewest questions. You can use a calculator for the entire Math section of the PSAT, and you’ll have 95 seconds per math question.

The Reading and Writing section has more questions and less time (71 seconds), so be sure to work fairly quickly here.

Note that it'll be more difficult to replicate these time frames on old PSAT tests since the sections and questions are so different. (We'll talk more about how to use old tests in the following section.)

#3: Review Your Answers

Once you finish taking a PSAT practice test, it's time to check your answers and score your test. But don't just look at your score and call it a day—take some time to go through all the mistakes you made and figure out what your biggest weaknesses are.

The best way to review your mistakes is to record the types of questions you got wrong, as well as the specific mistakes you made, in a "mistakes" journal. For example, if you missed an algebra problem, you'd write "algebra" as the question type and the specific reason you think you got the question wrong, such as "forgot formula." Make sure to use your test's answer guide to help you figure out why you might've missed certain questions.

After you've gone through your test, look at your mistakes journal to determine whether there are any patterns to your mistakes. For instance, do you typically struggle with evidence-based Reading questions? Math word problems? Writing questions dealing with fragments and run-on sentences?

Once you know what your weaknesses are, you can then customize your PSAT prep to focus more on honing the skills that are most challenging for you.

How to Make the Most Of Old PSAT Practice Tests

Although many official PSAT tests are outdated, they're certainly not useless. In fact, these old ones test many of the same reading comprehension, grammar, and math problem-solving skills you'll need for the current PSAT.

To make the most of these older official practice tests, you just have to shift your focus toward the skills that are still relevant while ignoring questions that no longer matter. Here are our seven tips for doing this effectively:

• Focus on evidence-based Reading: The current PSAT is all about using evidence and context to find an answer. If a set of passage-based Reading questions asks you about tone, style, or argument, don’t just try to look for the right answer among the options you're given. Instead, find the specific line in the reading passage that proves your answer is right. Keep in mind, too, that these older tests will have multiple questions per passage, whereas the new PSAT will only ask a single question per passage.

• Ignore Sentence Completion questions: You'll no longer encounter these questions on the PSAT, so just skip them entirely.

• Shift gears with vocabulary: Practice determining meaning through context, and make sure you understand subtleties of connotation.

• Focus on structure and organization: The current PSAT tests your understanding of the structure and organization of whole passages rather than that of stand-alone sentences. Therefore, as you’re reading a passage, take notes on its organization and make sure you understand its main and supporting ideas.

• Pay attention to graphs, tables, and charts: Try to understand the data and information represented in graphs. If there's no accompanying passage, try writing your own paragraph to describe the information. On the flip side, consider how the data presented in a passage could be represented visually. For practice, use problems from your math/science classes, as well as data interpretation questions from the ACT Science section.

• Choose your math problems: Focus on algebra, data analysis, and word problems, and spend far less time on geometry. Since the current PSAT involves multi-step grid-in problems, be sure to write out all the steps you take to answer a question. Also, remember the age-old adage: show your work. Also, practice with a calculator because you’ll have access to one for the entire math section!

• Learn the grammar rules tested: Both the old and current PSAT test similar grammar rules. Be sure to learn these, as you'll need to be able to recognize grammatical errors in context.

How Else Can You Prepare for the PSAT?

Since the PSAT is so similar to the SAT, materials for the SAT are good practice, so ACT prep can be helpful as well.

Another tip is to challenge yourself in your classes. Develop advanced reading and writing skills by reading a variety of genres and writing frequently. In your math and science classes, focus on data analysis and work on your ability to interpret or represent data in graphs, charts, tables, etc.

All of this preparation will not only help you get a high PSAT score, but will also help you get ready for the SAT. Since both exams are meant to test and sharpen your real-world reasoning skills, this kind of preparation should be helpful for all kinds of problem-solving in your day-to-day life.

What's Next?

High scorers on the PSAT might qualify for National Merit. Learn what it takes to become a National Merit Semifinalist and National Merit Finalist, as well as how to win the scholarship.

Are you wondering whether to take the PSAT before your junior year? Check out these guides to consider whether you should take the PSAT as a freshman or sophomore.

Are you curious about how the PSAT compares with the SAT? Read this complete guide to the SAT and learn all about the test.

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