Test guide · PSAT 8/9
Taken at school in 8th or 9th grade and scored from 240 to 1440 (the SAT’s scale runs to 1600).
The PSAT 8/9 shows what your student already knows in reading, writing and math, so you can see their growth on later tests. It does not count for National Merit.
Preparing for a different test? See which test fits. This guide is from Flashy, free PSAT and SAT practice that adapts to each student. Test facts checked against College Board sources on October 11, 2026.
The test takes 2 hours and 14 minutes. Reading and Writing has 54 questions in 64 minutes. Math has 44 questions in 70 minutes, and a calculator is allowed throughout. It is taken on a computer or tablet in the College Board’s Bluebook app.
Algebra carries the most weight. The Pythagorean theorem is on it, but trigonometry, circles, and rational and radical equations are not; those come on later tests. Source: College Board framework.
Short passages, each with one question, across literature, history, the humanities and science. The most complex passages, written at a 12th-grade to early-college level, are left out.
Schools give it in the fall or the spring and sign students up themselves, so ask a counselor whether and when your school offers it.
How the scored questions on the PSAT 8/9 split across content areas. Algebra is about 4 in 10 scored Math questions, so it deserves the most Math practice. The four Reading and Writing areas are close to even, so none can be skipped.
| Content area | Share | Scored questions |
|---|---|---|
| Information and Ideas | about 26% | 12–14 |
| Craft and Structure | about 28% | 13–15 |
| Expression of Ideas | about 20% | 8–12 |
| Standard English Conventions | about 26% | 11–15 |
| Content area | Share | Scored questions |
|---|---|---|
| Algebra | about 42.5% | 16–18 |
| Advanced Math | about 20% | 7–9 |
| Problem-Solving and Data Analysis | about 25% | 9–11 |
| Geometry | about 12.5% | 4–6 |
Source: College Board, Assessment Framework for the Digital SAT Suite. Each section also has a few unscored questions.
The PSAT 8/9 is a starting point, so preparing is mostly about knowing the format and spotting gaps early. Then practice regularly on the skills the practice test shows are weakest.
Take a free, full-length official practice PSAT 8/9 in the College Board’s Bluebook app, the same app used on test day.
Use the practice score report to see which Reading and Writing and Math skills need the most work.
Work on those skills a little at a time, and read the explanation for every question your student misses.
A second full-length official practice test shows what has improved and what still needs work.
These steps follow the College Board’s official practice page.
A student who chooses the PSAT 8/9 gets questions written for it: the same limits as the real test, so no trigonometry, circles or the most complex passages.
Practice starts gently while Flashy learns what your student knows, then each skill moves up as they show they can do it. That usually takes a few days.
It can be, for a seventh grader preparing for the PSAT 8/9 who can read the questions on their own. Choose the test, not the grade, and Flashy adjusts over the first few days as it learns what they know. For a student under 13, a parent creates the account and gives consent.
No. National Merit uses only the PSAT/NMSQT, which most students take in 11th grade.
A little, most days, is easier to keep up than long weekend sittings. In Flashy you choose from 5 to 120 minutes a day; 15 minutes is the default.
No. They are Flashy’s own practice questions, written to match the PSAT 8/9’s skills and limits. For official practice tests, use the College Board’s free Bluebook app.
PSAT or SAT questions matched to their test. Difficulty adapts over time to their answers, skill by skill. You choose 5 to 120 minutes a day.
A step-by-step explanation follows every question, so a mistake turns into something they understand.
Spark, Flashy’s AI learning companion, goes over a question they missed or marked, explains an idea they never learned, or teaches a short lesson built from their gaps.
Your student opens the question with Spark. Spark asks what they tried, then talks through where it went wrong, one step at a time. Then Spark gives them one more question like it, and they solve that one on their own.
Working through a missed question with Spark uses the plan’s monthly time to Study with Spark. Practice and step-by-step explanations stay open after it runs out, and the time refills the next month.
No credit card needed to start. See full pricing.
A sample Flashy question · Math · Linear functions
A monthly phone plan is modeled by a linear function D(g), where D(g) is the total monthly bill, in dollars, when the customer uses g gigabytes of data. A customer who uses 4 GB pays $52, and a customer who uses 9 GB pays $77. Which of the following defines D?
Answer: B
The slope is a = (77 − 52)/(9 − 4) = 25/5 = 5 dollars per GB. Using D(4) = 52: 52 = 5(4) + b, so b = 52 − 20 = 32. Therefore D(g) = 5g + 32.
Choice B is correct.
Choice A is incorrect — (D(g) = 5g + 52) uses the y-coordinate of the first data point as the y-intercept; the student wrote b = 52 because D(4) = 52, without subtracting 5 × 4 from it.
Choice C is incorrect — (D(g) = 25g + 32) reads the rise D(9) − D(4) = 25 as the slope without dividing by the run; the student computed the difference of the dollar amounts but forgot to divide by the difference of the GB inputs.
Choice D is incorrect — (D(g) = 5g − 32) flips the sign of the y-intercept; the student computed 52 − 5(4) = 32 but wrote the result with the wrong sign in the function rule.
The test facts on this page come from these official pages, checked October 11, 2026. They back the facts about the tests, not Flashy’s own claims. Dates and rules change, so check the source before you plan around them.
PSAT and SAT are College Board trademarks. Flashy is independent and not endorsed by the College Board.
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