Clued in parents and clued in students know the purpose of PSAT. It is an important resource that only benefits the student. Most parents and students dismiss it because they are ignorant about its advantage. Most people also underplay its importance to others to reduce the competition and remove its advantage from other students.

To get the most out of PSAT -
- Never miss an opportunity to take a PSAT if it is offered by the school.
- All PSATs (except the 11th grade one that qualifies for merit - NMSQT (National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test) should be taken without any preparation.
- Link the result of the PSATs with Khan Academy and it gives a comprehensive result of your performance. Based on your performance, Khan Academy creates a study plan for your students.
- If you do well in NMSQT and become a Semifinalist or a commended scholar, you can mention that in your college application.
- To become a finalist (or scholarship recipeint), you have to take the actual SAT and do well in it, include that score, a bunch of essays, recommendation from your HS - and they you become a finalist. There are some merit money for some of the kids from the NMSC (the company), but many corporations and many colleges give money too.
- If your HS does not administer the PSAT in 11th grade, or your student falls sick or the test gets canceled due to pandemic etc, you have alternate routes to get qualified and that is by taking a qualifying actual SAT and using it as a PSAT proxy.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why are 8th graders taking the PSAT?

Which 8th graders are taking it?
Here, it's typically 10th & 11th graders to practice for the SAT and qualify for scholarships (if in 11th).

There are PSAT for 8th, 9th, 10th and 11th graders. Some MCPS MS (Parkland?) administers these tests for free for its 8th grade students.

Each of these tests have questions only up to their grade level. For example, 8th grade PSAT will not have SAT questions from content that is taught in 9th grade and higher.

It gives a headstart in prep and exposure to students.

My 10th grader at Sherwood just texted that his was canceled.

Anonymous wrote:What is the purpose of the PSAT? Does it count for anything? I remember only a few people taking it, not me.

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.

Yeah, my 10th grader at Blake texted to say they stopped the test early and canceled it because apparently the College Board platform was having issues nationwide. Guess there are still bugs in the new digital format!

Anonymous wrote:My son got to question 12 before they cancelled the whole test at his school! He’s super confused and upset.

What school?

Anonymous wrote:My son got to question 12 before they cancelled the whole test at his school! He’s super confused and upset.

what happened?

My son got to question 12 before they cancelled the whole test at his school! He’s super confused and upset.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PSAT has two main benefits - one applies to everyone and the second applies particularly to high scoring kids - 1) prep test for SAT (time management, feel for the test, identification of areas to study...etc.) and 2) NMSF competition. While scholarship amount is only 2000, becoming NMSF/NMF/NMS can lead to a lot of money for school.

It's a gross pay to play lottery with the skin of a merit contest. The scholarship granted should be paying for the test, not the test takers.

PSAT is free

Anonymous wrote:PSAT has two main benefits - one applies to everyone and the second applies particularly to high scoring kids - 1) prep test for SAT (time management, feel for the test, identification of areas to study...etc.) and 2) NMSF competition. While scholarship amount is only 2000, becoming NMSF/NMF/NMS can lead to a lot of money for school.

It's a gross pay to play lottery with the skin of a merit contest. The scholarship granted should be paying for the test, not the test takers.

Anonymous wrote:College Board trying to stay relevant in a test optional world.

PSAT and NMSF are decades old.