My son is in 8th grade and took PSAT last month which was sponsored by his middle school. I understand his school will not offer another PSAT test until his 10th grade. Is there a way to take the test on his own. If so, is there any limit on how many test he can take. If he takes too many will it have any negative impact ?
thanks in advance.
Most high schools offer the PSAT once a year perhaps your high school is limiting it to 10th and 11th graders? Last year our high school would not let my then 10th grader take the PSAT and would only allow 11th graders to take the test. I just registered him to take the test in another school district with the homeschoolers. Personally I really don’t see the need for taking the PSAT in 9th grade none, of my kids have taken it in 9th grade, one is currently in 9th grade, my 11th grader is a NM hopeful and my college freshman is a NMF.
I don’t think testing in 9th grade makes much a difference either way, personally I think it’s a waste of time and money at that that age.
It is only used for NMF qualification in 11th grade. It is useful to take in 10th for practice, maybe, but 9th doesn’t seem useful. SAT prep books started summer before 11th grade are really all you need. It will just burn him out to push it sooner, and he will be learning quite a bit of the material he needs in his classes, too.
Focus his time until then on good grades and exploring his EC interests.
At my school the students in the most advanced math classes (i.e. Me) took it at school for free in seventh and eighth grade. In ninth grade I paid to take it with the juniors, and sophomore year I wasn’t allowed to because the same day was designated for a pre-ACT test for my year. Junior year everybody took it for free, and now as a senior I am a national merit scholar semi finalist. I honestly think the practice was not as helpful as simply studying for the SAT, as I had studied about seven hours for the SAT in the month before the PSAT was administered. Since the SAT is harder and I had been studying seriously for that, taking the PSAT was much easier. The years of practice for it were only helpful for nerves, since as we grow and learn we naturally score higher and two years is a lot of growing.
The literal answer to your question is that the PSAT is offered once a year and he can take it every year. So he can take it 9th, 10, and 11th grade. It only counts once (in 11th grade). And even then, it only counts for a very small number of students (those in the top 1%). For everyone else, it’s merely a practice test.
While people itt are dismissing the idea of PSAT before 10th grade, I disagree. It’s not often that your child has the opportunity to take an actual proctored test under real test conditions that has absolutely no effect on their future testing. (With other tests, having a bad score as a freshman and a good score as a junior could lead to an investigation. But since literally no one looks at the PSAT score, there is no worry.)