<p>I was just informed that this year our high school is "not allowing" freshman to take the PSAT. All 9th graders will take the Readistep, with all 10th and 11th graders taking the PSAT. This is our second time through this process, and D1 ran out of test administration dates to do the subject tests and SATs she wanted as a freshman. D2 is preIB and has set her sites very high for colleges. I am not sure that I am OK with her waiting until sophomore year to take the PSAT. What do others think? </p>
<p>sorry - edited to read she ran out of time as a senior. </p>
<p>I don’t even understand your question. How could not taking the PSAT as a freshman “run you out” of test dates? Our school doesn’t give the PSAT to freshmen. I was surprised they even give it to sophomores, since it’s a scholarship competition only for juniors, so I don’t see the point in giving it to freshmen. If you feel you need some indication of how she’s doing this early on, just have her take a practice test.</p>
<p>There are test dates nearly every month. That sounds more like poor planning by your first daughter. She should not have been planning to take any tests as a senior. Those dates should be a backup plan in case of unexpectedly bad scores. </p>
<p>I think having a semi-official practice test like the PSAT as a Sophomore (or even as a Freshman) can help but no huge hurry. If D2 has finished Geometry (in 8th grade) and has very high aptitude, it might be fun for her to take the SAT as practice as a Freshman since not likely to be able to take the PSAT this year (for PSAT specifically rather than SAT you can search at <a href=“SAT Suite Ordering – SAT Suite | College Board”>SAT Suite Ordering – SAT Suite | College Board; to see if there is a nearby school offering it on Saturday October 18th but not many do), but probably safer and easier to simply do practice SAT at home a few times if she has the prereqs completed.</p>
<p>Note that the PSAT changes in 2015, so this year’s freshmen and sophomores will take the modified PSAT their junior year. How the PSAT will change is not altogether clear to me, but I suppose it will change to be aligned with the changes to the SAT that roll out in spring of 2016.</p>
<p>My sophomore will take the PSAT this year, but didn’t take it freshman year. They used to make all sophomores take the ACT Plan the same day the juniors took the PSAT. But the ACT Plan is changing to the ACT Aspire, and that won’t be ready until spring. (And it sounds similar to Smarter Balanced testing for CCSS, so I’m not sure what the point is to ACT Aspire. But, we aren’t really an ACT state, so I don’t know much about it.)</p>