The Princeton Review - Princeton Review PSAT 8_9 Prep-Random House Children's Books (2021)

PACING
LOTD should remind us about something very important: there’s a
very good chance that you won’t answer every question on the test.
Instead, work at a pace that lets you avoid careless mistakes, and
don’t stress about the questions you don’t get to.
Think about it this way. There are 5 passages and 42 questions on the
Reading Test. You have 55 minutes to complete those questions.
Now, everyone knows that the Reading Test is super long and boring,
and 42 questions in 55 minutes probably sounds like a ton. The great
news is that you don’t have to work all 42 of these questions. After
all, do you think you read most effectively when you’re in a huge
rush? You might do better if you worked only four of the passages
and LOTD’d the rest. There’s nothing in the test booklet that says
that you can’t work at your own pace.
Let’s say you do all 42 Reading questions and get half of them right.
What raw score do you get from that? That’s right: 21.
Now, let’s say you do only three of the 8-question Reading passages
and get all of them right. It’s conceivable that you could because
you’ve now got all this extra time. What kind of score would you get
from this method? You bet: 24—and maybe even a little higher
because you’ll get a few freebies from your Letter of the Day.
In this case, and on the PSAT 8/9 as a whole, slowing down can get
you more points. Unless you’re currently scoring in the 650+ range
on the two sections, you shouldn’t be working all the questions. We’ll
go into this in more detail in the later chapters, but for now
remember this:
Slow down, score more. You’re not scored on how many questions you
answer. You’re scored on how many questions you answer correctly.
Doing fewer questions can mean more correct answers overall!