Best way to prep for PSATs?

Test Preparation
1

<p>My high school allowed freshmen and sophomores to try the PSAT, so I did last year as a freshman. I got a 201, didn't think much about it. And then I realized that the PSAT -- which determines if you're a National Merit Finalist or not! -- would be upon me in a little over a year! </p>

<p>Suffice to say, terror immediately set in. A year is so short when you think about it. As a student who would very much like to get into a prestigious college, being NMF is important to be. I will be a sophomore this coming school year, but I want to start preparing as soon as possible. I don't want to offend anyone, but for me, a 201 is LOW. Heartbreakingly so, especially when I checked out some cutoff scores for Ohio in the past few years and saw that it was almost always in the 210-215 range. </p>

<p>Does anyone have suggestions on how to get a good score on these? Are SAT prep books just as effective for prepping for the PSATs? Should I just cram my days with practice tests and see how it goes? Or just not study and hope for the best? (Some people say that really is the way to go.)</p>

<p>Thanks in advance for the opinions!</p>

<p>Edit: I just realized there's a board for National Merit Scholarships. Whoops. Sorry moderators! Didn't see it earlier and jumped the gun when posting. :/</p>

2

<p>I used Kaplan’s PSAT Premier. Got a 228.</p>

3

<p>The reading section always intimidated me. I practiced by using the Official SAT study guide and by using wordlists such as SparkNotes 250 Difficult words. Here’s the link:
[SAT:</a> Improve SAT Score with SparkNotes: The Top 250 Most Difficult SAT Words](<a href=“SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides”>SparkNotes: Today's Most Popular Study Guides)</p>

4

<p>I didn’t prep at ALL and improved by 8 points just by all the extra reading and math I did the next year- so don’t stress! The same strategies you use to prep for the SATs will help you improve your PSAT score, and you’ll retain all that knowledge for when you take the real SATs.</p>

5

<p>Ah, totally forgot about this thread.</p>

<p>Follow up: Got a 219 :)</p>

6

<p>Get the College Board Blue Book and start practicing. Make note of each question you get wrong and keep reviewing those questions until you get them all correct. Taking each section in a test environment will help with pacing. Best of luck.</p>