<p>Hi! I'm a junior. At my school, every sophomore and junior takes the PSAT, so by the end of junior year, you've taken it twice. I took it as a sophomore last year and got a 206, which wasn't quite high enough for my state to qualify for NMS. As a junior, I'm taking it on October 12th of this year.</p>
<p>I have been preparing for the SAT (and thus the PSAT) over the summer. I signed up for October 1, 2011, mainly because I'm ready for it and I want to get my first try out of the way before junior year really kicks into high gear later on.</p>
<p>I was just told the other day by a friend's parent that she thought that once you take the SAT, you're disqualified from the National Merit Scholarship contest via the PSAT.</p>
<p>Please help! I know I can get above the NY cutoff on the PSAT this year, so I don't want to get disqualified for the NMS. However, I still would like to take the SAT eleven days before, since I've been preparing and it's a good time for me. I'm pretty sure a lot of CCers have done this. So, will taking the October '11 SAT disqualify me from this year's National Merit Scholarship contest? </p>
<p>Thank you very much!</p>
That’s a relief.</p>