I hate the SAT with a passion. I perform much better on the ACT, and plan to submit that as my only test score (along with SAT2s.) my school requires us to take the PSAT and SAT Junior year (I’m a rising junior,) so I could potentially qualify for National Merit Scholar. However when I try to study for the PSAT I literally fall asleep. The reading passages bore me and the math is super complicated. Is it a big deal if I don’t makd national merit scholar?
It depends. A lot of successful students don’t make NMS. However, for others, it is a huge benefit in the form of scholarships. What schools do you want to go to? Some schools don’t really care, but some pay a lot of attention to a lot of National Merit students and award large scholarships.
However, if you’re going to have to take the tests anyway, you may as well do your best and study for them.
@nutmeg_shippy my top schools are NYU, UMich, John’s Hopkins, Dartmouth, and Northwestern
It’s not going to hurt you to take the tests when they’re required, so just do as well as you can. If you don’t feel that it’s worth it to put in the effort to study, then don’t, and make your application stand out by focusing on what you really do care about.
Also… what are you looking for in a school? The atmosphere of UMich vs. NYU vs. Dartmouth especially are all very different.