<p>My daughter scored 217 (80R,70W,67M) as a sophomore sans studying. The merit finalist cutoff in NY has been 217-219.</p>
<p>I bought her a copy of Grammar Girl. She has learned a lot in math this year (though trig and pre-calc). I'm hoping she can pickup a few points in writing and math, so even if she drops a bit in reading, she will make the cut-off. She had 1 wrong in reading, but there is a degree of luck and she could get several wrong next time. </p>
<p>What preparation would people recommend?</p>
<p>As a sophomore this year, I scored 225 (80CR, 72W, 73M). I hadn’t prepared for the PSAT whatsoever. I found that time generally wasn’t a concern in any section. To be honest, I’ve found that simply reading at least half an hour a day is excellent preparation for both reading and writing. As for math, I find that reviewing Algebra I permutations/combinators as well as Geometry theories/corollaries are especially helpful.</p>
<p>I also took the PSAT this year as a sophomore without preparing. I don’t think the PSAT has any math that is beyond the sophomore level, and only a couple of questions that are at this level (i.e. there is no trig and there are only linear equations). However, for the PSAT in general, it is very important not to make any stupid mistakes, because the curve is quite harsh (I ended up with a 77 in Writing with only 1 mistake). So it would be beneficial to review the math learned in previous years to prevent stupid mistakes. During the test, it is best to slow down and check things over…</p>
<p>For the Writing section I suggest having your daughter familiarize herself with the grammar rules, because some of them are easily missed in everyday conversation and writing. For prep I would suggest just using an SAT prep book, since I’m assuming that she’ll be taking the SAT later on.</p>