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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What is the purpose of the PSAT? Does it count for anything? I remember only a few people taking it, not me.[/quote]

It was put in place to remove inequities in education. It was supposed to let poor and disadvantaged students practice on a SAT-like exam, but with less questions than a full blown SAT. The fewer questions are there because it correctly corresponds to the grade level the student is in.  Of course, every student should at least take this test without preperation so they can correctly gauge where they stand.  These tests are not reported to any college so there is no downside to bombing these tests.

It is offered in some MS in the 8th grade, but mainly I have seen HS administer these tests in 9th, 10th and 11th grades.  It gives a performance report to students and tells them their area of weaknesses. This allows students to customize their SAT prep strategy.  These scores can be linked (for free) to Khan Academy and Khan Academy creates a customized study guide for the students , which is a free resource for prepping and being tutored for SAT (and every other subject, every grade).

If the students do particularly well in the 11th grade PSAT, they can win National Merit Scholarships (NMS) for college.  Some colleges will give a full ride to such students.

My neighbor's kid was an NMS finalist. He goes to UMD, and UMD gives him an additional 1K a year as a merit money for NMS.

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