I recently learned that the PSAT is offered to sophomores, and my school PSAT is in a month. Does it count for anything, will anything happen if I don’t get a good score/will colleges see?
I think it may a good idea to get an idea of what the test is like, but I also don’t think I’ll really have time to prepare? What are the pros and cons and should I take it?
A sophomore PSAT will not count for anything, the only people that will have your scores are you and maybe your counselor. You are taking it for practice only! Yes you should take it so you know what it’s like and can use it a study guide for the 11th grade PSAT. The 11th grade PSAT is important if you can score high enough to make the cut off in your start for National Merit. It’s a big deal if you score high enough to make National Merit and want to go to a school that offers $$$ for National Merit BUT if you don’t do well on your 11th grade PSAT it’s still no big deal and colleges will never see your score. It will just help you prepare for the SAT.
I think its a great opportunity to take the PSAT as a sophomore. Like already said, it will be a practice test under real test conditions. Will give you a chance to see how you do and areas you should focus on for next years test. And for the vast majority of kids, the PSAT (no matter the year) doesn’t mean anything.
If the school has a booklet, maybe take the practice test that is in it to familiarize yourself with the test.
Do take it, do go to you GCs office and see if they have the free prep booklet (my kids public does) or there are PSAT books for about $10/check your library. A month of self-prep is worth fitting into your schedule to see how you do in test conditions. Any online SAT prep r that you can find for free is worth looking for too. It is a great a reality check but IMO taking it cold (as most sophs will do) isn’t ever helpful unless you are a high scorer.
Some summer programs ask for standardized test scores that the applicant has taken, and if you have a PSAT score (even if taken as a 10th grader) that’s strong, it may be helpful to submit. Other than that, I don’t think we’ve used the 10th grade PSAT scores at all.
It has been a long time but my older d took the PSAT as a sophomore. She did very well although I cannot recall the scores at this point but she did begin receiving lots of mailings and brochures from colleges and that sort of freaked her out a bit as she wasn’t ready for it and one of the more aggressive schools that sent her info was Washington University which is pretty popular choice for students in NY and those with multiple interest areas. Getting so much info from them so early made her not want to consider that school at all not that she wanted to go that far away at all.
You do not need to sign up for marketing. The PSAT marketing has nothing to do with actual results. It is just a sign up option that you can omit.
There are now PSAT9 and PSAT10 (for sophomore). They are simply practice test for tracking your progress.
The new test is the PSAT 8/9, taken in 8th and 9th grade. 10th graders take the same test as 11th graders as National Merit Qualifier. What has changed is the scoring. The top score on each section of the PSAT 8/9 is 72 points, and on the PSAT10/NMSQT it is 76. It was changed to make the scores correspond better with SAT scores. The score you get on each respective test is roughly what you would score on the SAT if you would have taken it at the same time.