Juniors, you have a incredible opportunity coming up within the next two months. If you are planning on attending college to further your education,  be sure to sign up to take the PSAT/NMSQT.

The Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test is a standardized test put out by the College Board and cosponsored by the National Merit Scholarship Program. The college board partners with many education organizations to help connect students with obtaining scholarships.  Those who score well on the PSAT/NMSQT are eligible to receive these scholarships.

This year, the PSAT/NMSQT is being offered digitally instead of on paper as it was in the past. The digital form is much more secure and easier to complete.

The application that you will use to take the test is called “Bluebook.” Before testing you will complete digital readiness activities. These activities will ask you questions regarding yourself, your educational experience, and the plans you have after you graduate high school. To prepare for the PSAT/NMSQT you have a chance to practice for the PSAT/NMSQT since Bluebook also offers a test preview within the application. If your school does not offer a full-length practice session during the readiness check, you will sign up within the Bluebook application using the credentials your school provides you with.

This test will take approximately 2 hours and 14 minutes to complete. The sections of the test cover reading, writing, and math. You will have 64 minutes to complete the reading and writing section and 70 minutes to complete the math section.

After you have completed the PSAT/NMSQT you will be able to look at your scores. All questions are graded as correct or incorrect. There is no penalty for guessing, so try answering every question. The difficulty level of the questions and other qualities determine how a student’s score is calculated.

Good luck, juniors!  Always remember that you can achieve literally anything you put your mind to.