The New PSAT Timeline & What it Means for You

Today we’re talking about the changing PSAT and your testing timeline.

Historically, high schools have had three dates in October to choose from to administer the PSAT. Either the second Wednesday in October, the most common one. The Saturday after that, which used to be the most common before the new tests rolled out in 2016. Or the makeup date later in October.

But this year — because the test is going totally digital to align with the new digital SAT launching in March — high schools will have a window — from October 2nd to 31st — to decide when they want to administer the PSAT, which affects your testing timeline.

Now, some schools will stick to habit and administer the PSAT on the second Wednesday, October 11th this year. Other schools will pick a different day in October that just better fits their availability. And other schools will use this opportunity to test over multiple days where different students take the PSAT over different days; and that can help them with things like rationing devices or rationing proctors, so that way everybody gets to take the test.

And that’s also going to affect when you get your scores. Typically, national scores come out all at once.

A long time ago it was January. Since the SAT changed in 2016, it’s been in December. But now with this new change, it’s going to be in November; either November 6th or November 16th, depending on when you tested, and when your answers were submitted for scoring. And they have not announced quite yet what the cutoff is for November 6th versus the 16th, but we’re going to wait and find out more.

Now because the SAT is changing after the current December SAT— this coming March— to a totally digital test; that means that current seniors won’t be affected by this at all.

Current 10th graders will just be on this new normal of a totally digital PSAT and totally digital SAT.

But current 11th graders have an opportunity to finish the SAT before that change. And that timeline looks like if you haven’t tested already — if you’re not taking the August SAT — signing up for the October 7th SAT; that way you can do the November 4th SAT as your second test to put together your superscore. And if you need a third and final test, you can test on December 2nd and be done before the SAT changes.

That means you’ll take advantage of existing, proven curriculum, and not be experimenting with new curriculum and new strategies for a new test that no one in America has taken yet; at least not at this scale.

So, if you’re in 11th grade, my suggestion to you is, plan to finish on the current test.

Get started now. Prep starting now for the October SAT; take the November SAT. You have December as a safety net.

And then if you want to keep testing, you can always shift to the ACT for the rest of Junior year because you only have to submit one of those two company’s scores — SAT or ACT — to the colleges on your list. And that way you get the advantage of curriculum that you know works, strategies that have been proven for years, and you’re not trying out brand new stuff for the first time.

So if you have questions about the PSAT timeline, call us at 732-556-8220. We are here to help.