Step 2: Get the right study materials
Getting the right preparation books and other study materials can drastically increase your studying efficiency and reduce the total time you need to devote to studying.CollegeBoard’s Official SAT Study Guide
CollegeBoard’s Official SAT Study Guide is, without doubt, the best SAT preparation book on the market. Although it’s made for the SAT, it is still the best resource for PSAT preparation since the PSAT and SAT overlap so much. It is made by CollegeBoard, the group that writes the actual SAT questions. Not surprisingly, the book’s 8 Practice Tests are very realistic and similar to the actual exam. This book also has hundreds of pages devoted to explaining the SAT and teaching the concepts needed to master every type of question on the test.
A useful supplement to this book is CollegeBoard’s Official SAT Online Course. While a bit pricier, it provides you with answer explanations to the practice tests in the Official SAT Study Guide (the book) and more official practice tests.
Other good preparation books
Barron’s How to Prepare for the PSAT/NMSQT: 2009
Barron's PSAT/NMSQT 2009 is probably the best prep book available for the PSAT specifically. See above for reasons that CollegeBoard is a good choice--the types of problems on it are extremely similar to the types you will encounter on the PSAT. However, CollegeBoard does not offer a prep book for the PSAT itself, so Barron's is an excellent resource. It is designed, as most Barron's material, to be harder than the actual test. The introductory sections are thorough and challenging, the example problems are rarely easy, and the practice tests are more difficult than the PSAT itself. However, the clear teaching methods in the book as well as the detailed explanations of each individual problem (which CollegeBoard lacks) is one of its huge merits.
The math in the Barron's PSAT book is extremely helpful. It teaches tricks that are very useful to know on the test (unlike many taught in Princeton Review), and it offers enough difficult practice problems that by the time the real PSAT comes around, it will seem less intense, and even simple at times.
The writing section is also very good. It outlines all of the rules you need to know for the writing section, complete with examples and helpful explanations.
Reading is probably best practiced in CollegeBoard tests, because they are after all the real authors of the PSAT, but Barron's offers a condensed vocabulary list specifically for the PSAT that will prove invaluable for those on a tight schedule. Additionally, the lack of explanations on CollegeBoard reading sections combined with the sufficient degree of faithfulness of Barron's to the real test means that practicing reading from Barron's is not at all a bad idea.
Finally, the most important reason to use Barron's PSAT/NMSQT 2009 to study for the PSAT is that it has practice PSAT tests rather than practice SATs, which are far shorter and therefore easier to do when time is limited, and also get you used to the same conditions you will encounter in the real test. When doing Barron's practice tests the time might seem impossibly short because of the high concentration of medium and difficult questions, but it is worth the satisfaction of finishing sections on the real PSAT minutes early with time to check answers because of your training with Barron's.
Books to be cautious with
Princeton Review (any edition)
While the Princeton Review SAT and PSAT preparation books are okay as a study resource, they do have many shortcomings. The test questions are often badly written. Many are worded ambiguously or do have logically correct answers. Additionally, the book is fraught with errors.
Building Vocabulary
There are a number of vocabulary based questions on the PSAT so becoming familiar with high level vocabulary is critical. We recommend flashcards, a vocabulary list such as those found in the Barron’s SAT preparation books.
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