do kids prep for the PSAT?

[Anonymous]

I went to high school in the 1980s in a good school district in NY. No one prepped for the PSAT - you took it sophomore year and it was thought of as nothing more than a test to give you an idea what the SATs would be like. Kids did take prep courses for the SATs - princeton review and the like. Reading the national merit thread made me start to wonder - do kids prep for the PSATs nowadays?

[Anonymous]

op again - I was national merit "commended", btw, so I know that national merit existed back in the day - but still no one thought to prep for psat.

[Anonymous]

I didn't have my DD prep for the PSAT when she took it in 10th grade because I wanted to see where she may need additional help rather than jumping in right away with prep. Also, our school's college counselors discourage prep for the PSAT since kids will get so burned out on all the prep and testing that takes place over the 11th grade (and sometimes beginning of 12th grade) year. However, I know some parents did have their kids have some level of prep for the PSAT taken in 11th grade (which is the ones that count for the National Merit). I suppose if you really think your child could be in the running for National Merit level scoring then maybe a little test prep wouldn't hurt; however, I would be careful not to overload your child with too much prep - it gets exhausting.

[Anonymous]

Agree with PP that PSAT prep is worth it if your kid is on the bubble for a national merit scholarship. You may have a clue about whether or not s/he's on the bubble if s/he took practice PSAT tests in 10th grade.

Also, one strategy is to take the SAT in January of your junior year, in order to avoid taking the SAT in the spring of your junior year when you'll be swamped with AP and SAT II tests. Most kids don't wait to take the SAT until the fall of senior year, because this doesn't leave a lot of room for retests if you're not happy with the first results. If you go with the January strategy, then a SAT prep class the summer before junior year might be in order, and that would help with the PSAT, although there are some differences your kid should be aware of.

Some of the kids in DC's magnet middle school started prepping for the PSAT/SAT in 8th grade, no kidding. So YMMV.

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP who mentioned taking the SAT in the fall of senior year. Let me clarify - I only meant that they MIGHT be taking one of the SAT's in the fall of their senior year if they were unhappy with their previous scores or discover they need another SAT subject test. As the PP said no one should be taking the SAT's for the first time in the fall of senior year. Most kids wish to be done with that process so they concentrate on their college applications and getting good grades during that last semester, especially if they are applying regular decision. I agree that a good strategy is to have them take the SAT's as early as possible to get them out of the way, especially if feel that you child will score well.

[Anonymous]

Based on what I've seen my kid has the potential to score high enough for NM consideration. I'll do enough prep with her so that she can do her best, but I'm not going to go crazy. There are real financial rewards for doing well on the PSAT nowadays vs. when I took it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Based on what I've seen my kid has the potential to score high enough for NM consideration. I'll do enough prep with her so that she can do her best, but I'm not going to go crazy. There are real financial rewards for doing well on the PSAT nowadays vs. when I took it.

There were real financial rewards back then too, you just weren't so aware of it.

I was a national merit finalist and that translated into something like an additional $3K a year in scholarships on top of the tuition waiver I got at my in-state public university for being in the top 3% of my HS class. That covered most of my housing expenses.

[Anonymous]

I was in NY in the 80s, and we prepped. There was a class in school you could take. Kids didn't do the pay classes (eg Kaplan) until the SAT though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on what I've seen my kid has the potential to score high enough for NM consideration. I'll do enough prep with her so that she can do her best, but I'm not going to go crazy. There are real financial rewards for doing well on the PSAT nowadays vs. when I took it.

There were real financial rewards back then too, you just weren't so aware of it.

I was a national merit finalist and that translated into something like an additional $3K a year in scholarships on top of the tuition waiver I got at my in-state public university for being in the top 3% of my HS class. That covered most of my housing expenses.

Could be, but I hear about a lot more about state schools giving free rides to NMSF and above now. I was a NMSF and my wife was a NMS. I got nothing, and she got ~2K per year. Just seems like a lot more schools are targeting scholarships towards high scorers now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Based on what I've seen my kid has the potential to score high enough for NM consideration. I'll do enough prep with her so that she can do her best, but I'm not going to go crazy. There are real financial rewards for doing well on the PSAT nowadays vs. when I took it.

There were real financial rewards back then too, you just weren't so aware of it.

I was a national merit finalist and that translated into something like an additional $3K a year in scholarships on top of the tuition waiver I got at my in-state public university for being in the top 3% of my HS class. That covered most of my housing expenses.

Could be, but I hear about a lot more about state schools giving free rides to NMSF and above now. I was a NMSF and my wife was a NMS. I got nothing, and she got ~2K per year. Just seems like a lot more schools are targeting scholarships towards high scorers now.

Ditto. I was an NMSF and got $1K which didn't go very far at my private college. My kid has an NMSF friend who got a full ride.

[Anonymous]

I think it is a smart move for middle class families who make too much to qualify for aid. We didn't do it because we only had one kid and didn't know about this stuff. Thankfully, our kid got into an Ivy with SAT prep but she didn't do well enough on the PSAT to get any special commendation. I think schools/parents should do PSAT prep to get merit scholarships.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think it is a smart move for middle class families who make too much to qualify for aid. We didn't do it because we only had one kid and didn't know about this stuff. Thankfully, our kid got into an Ivy with SAT prep but she didn't do well enough on the PSAT to get any special commendation. I think schools/parents should do PSAT prep to get merit scholarships.

Ivies don't do merit aid for NMSSFs in the same way that many other colleges do. Ivies don't do any type of merit aid.

[Anonymous]

I guarantee you that many Asian students are prepping for the PSAT.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it is a smart move for middle class families who make too much to qualify for aid. We didn't do it because we only had one kid and didn't know about this stuff. Thankfully, our kid got into an Ivy with SAT prep but she didn't do well enough on the PSAT to get any special commendation. I think schools/parents should do PSAT prep to get merit scholarships.

Ivies don't do merit aid for NMSSFs in the same way that many other colleges do. Ivies don't do any type of merit aid.

TRUE. Admission to all Ivy League schools is "need-blind." But affordability shouldn't be an issue since all Ivies meet any demonstrated need. If you can get into one of these highly selective schools, they will do everything in their power to help you afford it.