<p>Marian:</p>
<p>Very enlightening. Do you think the students might realize that they would do bettr on a section later after they took the class then before they had completed the subject? I hope so.</p>
<p>PSAT actually is a pretty important test to take. Many schools based on it to grant scholarship, and try to get you to apply. It's not a very fair system but that's how they do it. You can take it in 10th grade and re-take it comes junior year.</p>
<p>You do well in the test, they will give you the "National Merit Scholar" title and it carries some to lot of weight. It's not very fair.</p>
<p>The PSAT was a practice for the SAT (p=preliminary), NMS also used it as a qualifying test. Now people take the PSAT before junior year to get practice in it. No harm as long as the students, teachers and parents realize the scores are not expected to be as high as later, ie using it as a learning tool without stressing over results. I disagree with the above "fairness" complaint. For thousands of students outside the elite schools it is good to have a national test to start this scholarship process. It takes away the local grading quirks for entry. Students usually perform at the same level on all their standardized tests over the years; if a person has a bad day and misses the cutoff they are giving up their place to a similar student who made it. There has to be a dividing line, it is always nicer to be on the better side of it; it will be most stressful for those who know they could fall on either side of the line. No system will ever be perfect, this one works despite its flaws, it is better than none.</p>
<p>Never too young for a test, if the results are handled appropriately. There are 6th graders who take the ACT/SAT through talent searches, as mentioned previously- some even get perfect scores! The average child could be overwhelmed with "out of grade" testing, the college bound HS student may want early insights into where they stand or the confidence a practice run may give.</p>
<p>I agree that no system is perfect. Maybe they should just use the SAT score to determine the scholarship potential and top 5% of the score of each SAT test for "National Merit Scholar" title. UC's stop using PSAT for a while now. Agree, no system is ever perfect.</p>
<p>it's required in the 9th and 10th grade at my school...</p>
<p>and it was in the middle of fall break :(</p>
<p>and we take the SAT starting in sophmore year...</p>
<p>My kids took it in middle school -- 7th and 8th grade. In our district, they allow kids to take it who are in aglebra at 7th grade. My youngest qualified for the Johns Hopkins Talent Search with his scores. The kids in our district are so used to standardized testing that it's no big deal to take the PSAT. I think it desensitizes them to take the test a few times before their junior year -- beacuse they've done it a few times with no pressure, it's routine and old hat by the time it counts.</p>
<p>My daughter took the PSAT in 10th grade and it was great practice for her, in addition to showing her weak areas. She liked the fact that she could take it, learn from it where she needed to improve (can you say, "Geometry"?), but without future colleges seeing it (as opposed to the SAT).</p>
<p>She now feels more prepared for the PSAT when she takes it "for real" this October as a Junior.</p>
<p>
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Do you think the students might realize that they would do bettr on a section later after they took the class then before they had completed the subject? I hope so.
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</p>
<p>I don't think students will automatically know which levels of math are covered on the PSAT and which are not. It's a fairly sophisticated point. My concern is that a kid who gets, say, a 50 on the PSAT Math section might incorrectly conclude "I'm bad at math," when he should have concluded, "I haven't completed Geometry yet, and there's material from the Geometry course on this test. I will probably score higher next year."</p>
<p>My S took the PSAT as a 10th grader, and his scores validated my gut feeling that he was close to qualifying for NM. During the summer before his junior year, I required him to work through the book "The REAL SAT's" from Collegeboard, 1 hour per day. He took the October SAT as a practice for PSAT a week or two later. Sure enough, he did well, and he will be attending U of A as a National Scholar next year, with almost all of the expenses (even out-of-state tuition) covered. He did take the SAT and ACT later, but since junior year was so busy, it was great to have prepped for them when he had the time.</p>
<p>Our public hs paid for sophs to take the psat and strongly suggested that students in honors sections do so. I don't recall paying for the jr year test either so if there was a fee they paid that one too.</p>
<p>I think that taking the test as a 10th grader was helpful because he did reasonable well it the following year.</p>
<p>Take PSAT every year to get ready. Then take SAT as soon as you feel ready. I felt ready sophomore year, got all my standardized tests done with (except AP's), and did well enough not to retake, even though I'm looking at top tier colleges. That's a lot of pressure off of me in the future!</p>
<p>Marian:</p>
<p>I think you've been out of school too long and are underestimating high school students. It's not that hard to find out what is covered in the PSAT's.</p>
<p>What's too early? My d took the SAT in the 7th grade for the CTY program. She took it again in 10th grade. She did very well in 7th grade, not too well in 10th, but did ok in 11th. She did not feel bad for the bad PSAT score in 10th.</p>
<p>PSAT in 10th. Very important along with SAT if merit scholarships are important. As far as the schools offerings and what "floats a parent/student's boat", if money is not an issue for school, no worries then.</p>
<p>For us, with two kids who ended up NMFs it meant around a quarter million of "free" money for school. Personally, I can't knock that. If you really pay attiention you'll find the NMF is far far more than $2,500 or even the list of schools currently promoting NM. In the few years between kids, we've watched the pool grow bigger, the money better and more choices. </p>
<p>Both my kids are going to get a quality education at fine LA schools with very little cost to us (gas, insurance, clothes, stuff). One starts med school this fall and does so without undergrad loans dragging him down. Med school will take care of that though. ;)</p>