A friend asked me - actually really an acquaintance but someone I do not want to steer wrong - do they need to stress their kid out studying for the PSAT? The kid’s private school has done no prep but I was under the impression that PSAT don’t really matter - we are in MA so to get actual NMS you have to get a ridiculous # right - didn’t your son calculate it @buuzn03 ?? So I said “don’t worry, doesn’t matter” and then I panicked that maybe it matters and when the mom finds out she is going to be annoyed at me for giving bad advice.
Kid is in a high performing day school and not stressed out of her mind but has a LOT going on.
My DS did not prep. Many of his peers did but not at the direction of the school. The national scale, if you look at it for the past few years, always has MA at the top of the list (this year, NJ is tied with them at 222). There are states who have qualifying scores as low as 209. (It is based on the actual PSAT score but modified by a calculation into this number).
DS would have qualified at home but missed Mass by 1 point.
I think it’s nice to have the designation but not enough to stress about. And the money involved with the actual NMF scholarship is minimal. @one1ofeach I would’ve given the same advice as you did. It’s not worth stressing about.
I’m in MA too - my son took it last year (Sophomore) and didn’t prep (nor did any of his friends). At his school most kids use it as a way to identify where they’ll need to study for the SAT - they are actively discouraged from prepping. He’s not going to bother taking it again this year as he isn’t a NM candidate - although he has a few friends that did spectacularly well last year and will try for National Merit this year.
Ok, great. Thanks to both of you. I will pass on that it can be a good way to identify prep areas for SAT. That might help the mom feel like no prep can actually be a good plan! LOL. When my kids took the PSAT I was not even informed that it was coming up - I think things like that are the big difference between day and BS. It certainly does ease parent anxiety I guess.
@one1ofeach You could give her a hybrid version of that advice - which would be to have their kid take a practice PSAT test on their own. If they score in such a way that could put them close to qualifying for NMS in their state, then it might be worth some prep to try to get it (or at least to minimize regrets). If they aren’t close, then I don’t think there is a good reason to prep. Giving this advice might make you feel better, too, that you have covered the bases.
No prep is a reasonable strategy if the kid needs to reduce stress, has too much going on and doesn’t have time to prep, or is just using the PSAT to find out their weak areas that they need to work on before taking the SAT. Understandably, the odds in MA are slightly slimmer than elsewhere. However, a good number of kids prep for and take the actual SAT before the PSAT. One may or may not count that, but it sure doesn’t hurt if the student is prepping for SATs and retakes, and the PSAT happens to fall between two of those test dates.
Agree. No reason to worry about it. I think the kids who are most concerned are the ones who have taken it in Sophomore year and did reasonably well enough to be considered close to previous cutoff #'s. MA is very hard ( so is CA and CT and DC).
The financial pot isn’t as big as some others. But it can help move some scholarships along. Certainly, can’t hurt.
I don’t know of anyone who prepped. Usually it’s the first test kids take on the way to the SAT.
While many/most may not prepare for the PSAT, it is worth noting that there is another school of thought and approach, particularly for kids who are strong standardized test takers.
Many colleges/universities like to flaunt the number of NMSF finalists and semifinalists matriculating to them. So, there may be some advantage to having the designation for applications.
If you subscribe to the value of the NMSF designation and want to tie test prep to other standardized testing, a good sequence is: (1) start SAT/ACT prep in July of the summer before 11th grade, (2) take the SAT and ACT in August, (3) retake either the SAT or ACT in September, depending on which score is better, and (4) take the PSAT in October. Ideally, the SAT would be the test that the student does best on and builds their test prep to achieve the highest SAT and PSAT, since they are similar formats.
The other advantage of this pathway is that the student is done with standardized testing at the beginning of his/her junior year.
