Our son will be up for the PSAT next fall. He is a very strong student and we hope he will qualify for the National Merit Scholarship for SATs. Anyone have advice or stories to relate?
My D took the SAT in the fall of her junior year and prepped for it using the CB book. The prep for the SAT was the same as for the PSAT so she killed two birds with one stone. Have him study and take lots and lots of practice tests under timed conditions. She ended up being a National Merit Finalist. Good luck to your son!
Similar to @suzy100’s advice. Our D took SAT in November of Junior year and started to prep in earnest in August. She didn’t prep specifically for the PSAT in October but took timed SAT practice tests and studied some vocab. Because she was used to taking the longer SAT practice tests, the PSAT was not a big deal. She is still a junior so we don’t know about NMS but her score was 15 points above the 2015 cut off for our state.
I agree with @suzy100 studying for the SAT and PSAT at the same time is great advice but be aware this year the PSAT will be in the new format and the Fall SAT will still be in the old format. I don’t think this is a huge deal just something to be aware of. Things like in the new PSAT format there is no penalty for guessing but in the old SAT format there is.
We have the new CB book on pre-order. S18 will take a local prep class this August. After we see how he does on his 10th grade PSAT, I’ll likely have him do a more targeted, on-line class the summer between 10th and 11th grade. This is what we did with D16 and we were very pleased with the results.
Thanks very much!