The PSAT (Preliminary SAT) / NMSQT (National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test ) is a standardized test administered by the College Board and cosponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) in the United States.
High school sophomores and juniors take the PSAT / NMSQT to be qualified for the National Merit Scholarship Program.
The PSAT / NMSQT takes 2 hours and 14 minutes and consists of 2 sections: (1) the Reading and Writing Section (64 minutes for 54 questions), and (2) the Math Section (70 minutes for 44 questions).
Most of the questions are multiple choice, though some math questions ask you to write in the answer rather than select it.
All test questions are first scored as correct or incorrect.
The difficulty level and other qualities of each question (such as how well it differentiates skill level or how easy it is to guess on a question), as well as whether you got the question right or wrong, are taken into account when calculating your raw score.
Your total score is a number between 320 and 1520, which is the sum of the two section scores: (1) Reading and Writing and (2) Math – each section in the range of 160–760.
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