<p>Everyone told me not to prep for the PSAT last year, and I barely had a clue that there was a scholarship that went with it or anything, but I did a little bit anyway, by taking a practice test and looking through an SAT book… I would definitely recommend that everyone at least do that, and if you’re in the NMSF range, then def practice a little more. I made NMSF (and I guess I might have either way because I did better on the practice than the real thing, but who knows?).</p>
<p>A lot of people at my school start preparing for the PSAT/ SAT starting freshman or sophomore year and take rigorous summer prep classes. That’s probably the reason my school has so many NMSF this year.</p>
<p>My D refused to prep for the PSAT at all. At the time, our family wasn’t aware of the opportunities (hadn’t found CC yet). NMF seemed like a fairly meaningless honor, like that ‘candidate for Presidential Scholar’ thing she got. I was vaguely aware that a couple of schools offered large NMF scholarships, but had the idea these were the sort of schools D would never attend. She made NMF anyway and discovered that she loved one of the schools with a big scholarship, attending now.</p>
<p>I later discovered that our state flagship offers a fairly significant freshman scholarship to in-state NMF which they do not advertise at all, so S did do one practice test this fall before taking the PSAT. At this point he’s not interested in any of the big scholarship schools, or our state flagship, for that matter, so not motivated. I understand that even the small $2K/yr scholarships are useful. I used to think they would just reduce grant aid from privates, but learned during D’s application process that more often they reduce loans/work-study.</p>
<p>Since I went to school on a full scholarship from NMS, I wanted my D to have that same option. We prepped starting gently in 9th grade and ramping up towards Junior year. All our efforts were free and done from home. She started with a 195 in 9th grade, so I knew the potential was there. She ended up with a 223, but our state cutoff rose also to 219 so it was closer than I would have liked! D ended up choosing a full ride at our state flagship which was her desired school.</p>
<p>Our school didn’t stress this test much. Most parents, in my area, don’t realize what options the Finalist designation provides.</p>
<p>I think it depends on the student. My son didn’t do one thing to prepare. He just showed up for the test and ended up being a NMF and a NM Scholar. My daughter needed a lot more prep.</p>
<p>I agree with Debbie7452. Our local high school barely even describes the exam to the students. Most have no idea what NMF designation can provide. Many kids around here just skip the test. No info is given to parents either, which is unfortunate.</p>
<p>Even if a kid knows all the material, a kid who doesn’t prep is likely to make errors due to being unfamiliar with the question types. They are also going to work more slowly than they would have with practice. They won’t know how to pace themselves and they might run out of time or, alternatively, make careless errors through rushing. Consider that they may be nervous, and might also be tired if test anxiety interfered with their sleep the night before. Any of these things could lead to a few errors.</p>
<p>So now you have to consider what’s being asked of your child. As far as I understand the scoring system, if you live in Massachusetts, you would miss the cutoff if you get about 6 questions wrong. It might vary slightly with the section. (Disclaimer: I don’t completely understand how the fractional deductions for wrong answers are handled the way the score chart is given, but that’s about right.) If you assume the kid will miss a few due to the factors above, you can see it’s going to be very difficult to qualify. If you live in West Virginia, you miss the cutoff if you get about 15 questions wrong. </p>
<p>Suppose you don’t prepare and then you got tripped up on the format of two of them and you didn’t finish one section, missing the last two. Four errors due to lack of test prep. In West Virginia, you can still miss about 10 due to lack of knowledge and still qualify. The kid from Massachusetts can only miss one. If you are in a high cut-off state, I think you really have to go after those factors you can control and make sure your child is very familiar with the test. I’m sure there are kids who stroll in and qualify, but it’s going to be tough, even for outstanding students. If you are in a low cutoff state, but nevertheless confident of your child’s knowledge, perfecting test-taking skills for this particular test may be less important since they have so much leeway for errors.</p>
<p>The test was not stressed by my school. It was described as a “practice test except for the top 1%.”
6/8 students who received 220+ did take an SAT course in the summer, which certainly helped. Additionally, 3 of these students had recently studied for the October SAT.
In terms of PSAT-specific studying, there were 3 students, all receiving 220+.</p>
<p>Our school has all tenth graders take the PSAT. Because he knew it didn’t count, S2 refused to do any prep this year (he’s Mr. Minimum). S1 did one practice test each time and qualified. So not much prep but familiarity. And generally good test-taking skills (he’s third generation NM!). Too early to know if it will pay off. Also I have already warned him you can’t expect to coast through life filling out multiple choice bubbles!</p>
<p>Also, other than paying for each student to take the test in tenth grade our school doesn’t make a big deal about PSAT. We had 2 semifinalists this year and a handful of commended. Other schools in our area make much more fuss. It is like there needs to be critical mass before it gets emphasized.</p>
<p>My son does competition math and had an 800 on the SAT in 8th grade, so he didn’t do any math prep. But I bought a few vocab books and I would write about 20 words a day on a white board at dinnertime and have all of the kids say what they thought the words meant (can you say b<em>o</em>r<em>i</em>n*g for the 9-year-old – LOL). He also did a very brief review of a SAT grammar book and a few previous tests of the critical reading (from the blue book). So maybe a couple of hours on his own (plus about 10 minutes at dinnertime for the vocab work for a couple of weeks).</p>
<p>Yeah I prepared, took classes at Huntington. They helped, raised from 187 to 216. In GA so REALLY hoping I make NM. My bro however scored a 237/2350 without any prep. Oh genetics…</p>
<p>My son did not do any prep for PSAT, but he is currently a NM semi-finalist. His SAT (2170) was a close match to his PSAT. He did study with a tutor once a week for several months prepping for the ACT (35). Hope this helps.</p>
<p>For sophomore year, I only utilized the practice PSAT test sent to every student, and that was it.
For junior year, I saw a very expensive tutor, and my score went up a meager 50 points. The tutor really didn’t help me! I studied A LOT more too!</p>
<p>I think that for the SAT, I will spend a majority of the time studying by myself. There is a book titled “Hack the SAT” by a former Harvard student-turned-tutor that is very, very good at explaining SAT tricks.</p>
<p>Can anyone describe their experiences with tutors? It seems as if mine wasn’t so good.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t call a 50 point boost from sophomore to junior year a “meager” gain on the PSAT!
That is a HUGE increase.</p>
<p>(Perhaps you are putting it on the SAT scale and mean only a 5 point gain on the PSAT?)</p>
<p>Did not study for sophomore year and studied for junior year. Saw huge improvement and became NMSF.</p>
<p>Oh, yeah only 5 points (PSAT scale). Forgot about the SAT/PSAT disparity in the scoring.</p>
<p>Got a 209. Last year was 210 for michigan. Do you think im expected to get it? Score cutoff has usually been 207-211. Mean is 209.</p>
<p>I also only studied for the junior year test…ended up qualifying. My school does not put any emphasis on PSAT scores at all but my sister was an NMSF so my parents are the ones who pressured me to study</p>