Are you getting ready to take the PSAT/NMSQT and are not sure what sorts of questions you can expect to find on the Writing Skills section? Many students encounter this exact same difficulty and let it delay or misfocus their studying for this section. Indeed, while “Writing Skills” may suggest that you should prepare yourself to write an essay, there is no essay component of the PSAT. So, what kinds of questions are asked on this section? Let’s find out.

The first type of question featured on the PSAT’s Writing Skills section is Identifying Sentence Errors. Of the section’s thirty-nine questions, fourteen are Identifying Sentence Errors questions. The aim of this question type is to find the error contained in a sentence that has four parts underlined. These four parts are associated with answer choices A–D. If you can identify an error in one of these underlined sections, that is the answer choice you want to pick. A fifth option is also provided: “No error.” Not all of the given sentences contain errors, and if you think the sentence is grammatically correct as written, you should pick the “No error” option. To study for this section, you should brush up on your knowledge of grammar, but as if you’re going to be expected to spout grammatical rules or make corrections to sentences. That’s the trick to this section—you don’t actually have to know what to do to correct a sentence’s error; you just have to be able to pick out one as being an error.

The second type of question that appears on the PSAT’s Writing Skills section is Improving Sentences. About 20 of the section’s 38 questions are of this type. This is the type of question that does ask you to correct an error, but on the plus side, it doesn’t make you look for the error—only one part of the given sentence is underlined, and each of the answer choices provide a different way to rewrite the underlined part of the sentence. It’s good to be aware that there is an option equivalent to the “No error” option found in Identifying Sentence Error questions; one of the answer choices simply replicates the given part of the sentence, exactly as it is written in the question. Pick this one if the sentence is correct as written; it won’t be identified as being any different from the other answer choices, though, so read carefully!

The final kind of question that the PSAT’s Writing Skills section includes is Improving Paragraphs. While only five of the section’s thirty-eight questions are of this type, this can be the most challenging type of question for many test takers, because it asks you to apply your ability to pick the best rewrite of a certain bit of prose, just like the Improving Sentences questions, but instead of focusing on part of a sentence, it works at a larger scale, on the level of paragraphs that are provided with the questions. Don’t worry, though—you won’t be expected to rewrite an entire paragraph! You also won’t be asked to interpret the information the paragraph provides; that’s what the PSAT’s Reading Comprehension section asks you to do. Rather, Improving Paragraphs questions will ask you about pinpointed revisions to paragraphs, such as where a specific sentence might be inserted in or omitted from the paragraph at hand. So, when tackling these types of questions, make sure to take your time so that you can get a good sense of how the paragraph is constructed; skimming the first sentence is highly unlikely to give you enough information to answer the question correctly.

Now that you know about each type of question you will encounter on the PSAT’s Writing Skills section, could you use some great free resources to help you study for the section? Varsity Tutors’ Learning Tools website offers free PSAT/NMSQT Writing Skills Practice Tests that can help you master each kind of problem you’ll encounter on the exam! Taking a Practice Test is like taking a twelve-question quiz consisting of problems like the questions formatted like the ones you’ll be asked on the real PSAT/NMSQT. Full explanations are provided for each problem, so if you miss a question, you can figure out what sort of mistake you made and where in your reasoning you made it. Also, if you realize that you need to focus on practicing just one type of Writing Skills problem, you can do that too! Varsity Tutors’ Practice Test problems are organized by concept as well as in Practice Tests that draw from categories comprehensively, so you can study exactly what you need to study when it’s most convenient for you.

To get a better idea of which skills you need to review, begin by taking a Full-Length PSAT Writing Skills Practice Test to help you get an overview of your current knowledge level. The fact that these tests simulate the actual exam can help you learn to modulate your test-taking speed so you can work to ensure you’ll have enough time to finish the real test. The results pages for the full-length tests offer all of the useful feedback provided by the concept-specific practice tests, including extensive explanations and links that provide concept-specific practice. The results of the complete practice tests can also help you refine your PSAT study plan by revealing which topics need some review. Once you’ve had the opportunity to review, you can gauge your progress by taking another Full-Length PSAT Writing Skills Practice Test.

By familiarizing yourself with the three types of PSAT Writing Skills problems before test day, you’ll be able to focus not on the details of how each question is asked, but instead on figuring out the correct answer!