How do I prepare for the PSAT?

Im an upcoming sophomore who will be taking the PSAT. What books do you recommend I get? When should I start preparing? I want to at least get a 200 on it.

Correction: 1500. Sorry, didn’t realize there was a new form.

I am an upcoming junior and I got a 1370 (aka 201) on the PSAT last year. I only studied for a couple of hours, but the book I used was very helpful. I used the Barron’s PSAT book, which gave me a good overview of the kinds of questions that would appear on the test.
http://www.amazon.com/Barrons-Strategies-Practice-NMSQT-Educational/dp/143800768X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1464043375&sr=8-1&keywords=barron%27s+psat

By the way, you said you were aiming for a 200/240 and then corrected it to 1500(out of 1520), but there is a huge difference between a 200/240 (which is about what I got, a 1370), and a 234/240 (which is a 1500). To get a 1500, you can only miss a few questions, while to get a 1370, you can miss about twenty-five.

@TP2000 Thanks dude. You only studied for a couple of hours before the test?

You really don’t need a 1500/1520 as a sophomore…
Just take it this year and see how you do, then set a goal score junior year and study.

@annana Why would I take the PSAT junior year when I have the act and sat to take?

@ihatewhereilive For National Merit for FULL ride at certain schools and significant merit scholarships at others. This is really important for full pay kids in the “doughnut hole.” If you are low income, URM with very high stats, you might not care about National Merit or if your family is wealthy and has no issue with full pay you might not care, but for many kids that do well on the PSAT in their Junior year, National Merit is the “Golden Ticket.” This is the case for my kids. PSAT junior year is the most important test they take in high school.

Yeah, you want to take it junior year so you’ll qualify for NM. Otherwise there’s no point in taking it at all.

@3scoutsmom @annana Oh, thank you for informing me. I thought if you did well on the PSAT sophomore year that you would qualify for national merit, but I don’t have to worry about doing well on the PSAT until 11th grade. Thank you both for explaining.

Also, you’d probably only need around 1400-1450 to qualify in most states.

@annana The cutoff for a commended this year was a 209 (1420), so anyone trying to qualify for NM should try to score well above that.

@ihatewhereilive I only studied for a few hours in August (the PSAT is in October), but this year I will study much more as my goal is actually 1500/1520. Your score will naturally go up from freshman to sophomore year as well. I got a 152 my freshman year but a 201 (1370) my sophomore year.

@TP2000 Nice. I got a 120 8th grader which was 22 percentile lol.

@TP2000 I thought they didn’t release the cutoff until next year, are you sure that’s not 2014?
I’m sure the qualifying index will go down since perfect is a 228 vs a 240. Also 1420 is 99th percentile so I doubt that will be the cutoff for commended(I didn’t get that exact score but my friend did and it said 99th on her score report)

@annana Several people called the college board and confirmed that the commended cutoff for 2015 is 209, which is a 1420. It is much higher this year than previous years due to the fact that there are too many people who received high scores on this PSAT. The cutoff for commended in 2014 was a 202. The percentages on the PSAT score reports were incorrect, as anything above a ~1350 was supposed to be in the 99th percentile according to them.

@TP2000 do you know what the cutoff for semifinalist was?

@annana They will release that in September.

friend got a 99 percentile in every category and still wasn’t eligible for national merit. Honestly it doesn’t even matter…

Personally I would have my kid prep in the summer before 10th grade for PSAT to get a good idea if NMF will be in the range for 11th grade. If so, set up a study program and follow it. As @3scoutsmom can testify, NMF makes a huge deal for us donut hole parents and our kids.