Test guide
Usually the PSAT 8/9 in 8th or 9th grade, the PSAT 10 in spring of 10th, the PSAT/NMSQT in fall of 11th for National Merit, and the SAT in 11th or 12th.
In most cases, your student takes the test their school offers for their grade, and the school signs them up. Students usually enter National Merit through the PSAT/NMSQT in 11th grade, if they meet NMSC’s entry requirements. The SAT is the test for college admissions.
This guide is from Flashy, free PSAT and SAT practice that adapts to each student. Test facts checked against College Board and NMSC sources on October 11, 2026.
All four are taken on a computer or tablet in the College Board’s Bluebook app, with a Reading and Writing section and a Math section.
| Test | Usual grade | When | What it’s for | Score range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSAT 8/9 | 8th and 9th grade | At school, in the fall or the spring | A starting point. It shows strengths and gaps early, so progress can be tracked through high school. | 240–1440 |
| PSAT 10 | 10th grade | At school, in the spring | The same test as the PSAT/NMSQT, given in the spring. It does not count for National Merit. | 320–1520 |
| PSAT/NMSQT | 11th grade (some 10th graders take it too) | At school, in October | The test students usually take in 11th grade to enter the National Merit Scholarship Program, if they meet NMSC’s entry requirements. | 320–1520 |
| SAT | Spring of 11th grade, and again in the fall of 12th if needed | On weekend dates through the year, and at some schools on a school day | College admissions. | 400–1600 |
Each test takes 2 hours and 14 minutes, not counting breaks. Scores on all four sit on one scale, so a student can see growth from one test to the next. For this school year’s exact dates, see the College Board’s test dates and deadlines.
Take the PSAT 8/9 if the school offers it, as a starting point.
Take the PSAT 10, or the PSAT/NMSQT if it is offered, as practice, and use the score report to pick skills to work on.
Take the PSAT/NMSQT in October; students usually enter National Merit through it, if they meet NMSC’s entry requirements. Plan a first SAT for the spring.
Take the SAT again in the fall if your student wants another try, in time for college application deadlines.
Reading and Writing: short passages, each with one question. Math: all four cover algebra, advanced math, problem-solving and data analysis, and geometry. The PSAT 10, PSAT/NMSQT and SAT also include trigonometry. A calculator is allowed on the whole Math section. Source: College Board framework.
Each section has two parts. How a student does on the first part decides whether the second is harder or easier.
Each test is built for its grades, and scores share one scale. That is why the top of the range rises from the PSAT 8/9 to the SAT.
Usually the PSAT 8/9, if their school offers it. It is built for 8th and 9th graders and gives a starting point to track progress through high school.
Either can be good practice; they are the same test. Only the PSAT/NMSQT counts for National Merit: students usually enter through the one taken in 11th grade, if they meet NMSC’s entry requirements, so a 10th grader’s score is mostly practice.
No. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation uses only the PSAT/NMSQT, not the PSAT 10 or the PSAT 8/9.
The College Board suggests the spring of 11th grade, and again in the fall of 12th grade if your student wants another try. Check the colleges on your list for what they ask for.
The school signs students up for the PSAT 8/9, PSAT 10, PSAT/NMSQT and SAT School Day; ask a counselor which tests it offers. For a weekend SAT, students register themselves on the College Board website.
Flashy covers all four tests, in Math and Reading and Writing. Your student chooses the test they are preparing for, not a grade, and gets questions written for that test.
Flashy’s questions are its own, written to match each test. They are not official College Board questions. For full 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.
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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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