1: About the PSAT/SAT and SS
Social Studies Support for PSAT/SAT
The PSAT/SAT focuses primarily on a student's reading, writing, language, and mathematics skills that indicate readiness for and success in postsecondary education. However, there are many areas in Social Studies that can support success on the PSAT/SAT and in life beyond high school! This is a brief overview of the Social Studies related skills students will find on the PSAT/SAT and how teachers can help better prepare students for these types of questions.
All information specific to the PSAT/SAT Test comes from The Redesigned SAT Teacher Implementation Guide.
What are the prerequisites for college and career readiness?
College Board research shows that, in order to be ready for postsecondary success, students must be able to do the following. Social Studies related skills are bold.
- read, analyze, and use reasoning to comprehend challenging literary and informational texts, including texts on science and history/social studies topics, to demonstrate and expand their knowledge and understanding;
- revise and edit extended texts across a range of academic and career-related subjects for expression of ideas and to show facility with a core set of grammar, usage, and punctuation conventions;
- show command of a focused but powerful set of knowledge, skills, and understandings in math and solve problems situated in science, social studies, and career-related contexts;
- make careful and deliberate use of evidence as they read and write;
- demonstrate skill in analyzing data, including data represented graphically in tables, graphs, charts, and the like, in reading, writing, and math contexts; and
- reveal an understanding of words in context and how word choice helps shape meaning and tone.
New Features of the Resigned PSAT/SAT
If you haven't taken a look at the PSAT/SAT in a while, there are some new changes beginning in 2016 that emphasize the importance of Social Studies skills.
- Command of Evidence: Students will analyze materials from a variety of content areas (literature and literary nonfiction, science, history, and social studies) and on career-related topics. Students will use textual evidence to support their answers, and they will apply an understanding of how authors make use of evidence.
- Essay Analyzing a Source: After completing the other three tests, students opting to take the Essay will be given 50 minutes to compose a clear and cogent analysis of text in response to a prompt common to every administration of the SAT. Essays will be scored on reading comprehension, writing skill, and argument analysis.
- Problems Grounded in Real-World Contexts: Students will engage with questions grounded in the real world and directly related to the work performed in college and career. Both the Reading Test and the Writing and Language Tests will include literature and literary nonfiction, and they will also feature charts, graphs, and passages similar to those that students are likely to encounter in science, social science, and other majors and careers. The Math Test will feature multistep applications to solve problems in science, social science, career scenarios, and other real-life contexts.
- Analysis in Science and Analysis in History/Social Studies: Across all components of the exam, students will be asked to apply their reading, writing, language, and math skills to answer questions in science, history, and social studies contexts.
- U.S. Founding Documents and the Great Global Conversation: The U.S. Founding Documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights, and the Federalist Papers, have helped inspire a conversation that continues to this day about the nature of civic life. Over time, authors, speakers, and thinkers from the United States and around the world, including Edmund Burke, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Mohandas Gandhi, have broadened and deepened the conversation around such vital matters as freedom, justice, and human dignity. Every time students take the SAT, they will encounter a passage from one of the founding documents or from a text from the global conversation. Our hope is to inspire a close reading of these rich, meaningful, often profound texts not only as a way to develop valuable college and career readiness skills but also as an opportunity to reflect on and deeply engage with issues and concerns central to informed citizenship.
New Scoring Guidelines for the Redesigned SAT
Practice PSAT/SAT Questions Related to Social Studies
This document compiles all released practice questions related to Social Studies topics. Teachers can use this to familiarize themselves with questions and to use in modeling strategies with students.
Information compiled by Amy Mount, PK-12 Social Studies Coordinator at Garland ISD. For questions or comments, please email almount@garlandisd.net. Connect with Amy on Twitter at @msmrocks.