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<p>I'm a Junior, and I haven't really done any prep at all yet. I just did a test cold turkey today and I came out with a score of 206. </p>
<p>The only thing is that for some odd reason (it may have been the nature of the test I took) I did better in math than reading/writing, which is extremely weird because I've taken the SAT two times before (one from John Hopkins in 7th grade and once for free at the local library in the beginning of 10th grade) and both times I did better in reading/writing than in math, and I've always been stronger in English than Math in school as well. </p>
<p>Anyways, the National Merit cutoff for NY is usually around 218.
My mom wants me to take a prep course because she really wants me to get NMS, but I'm not sure if it would be worth so much money.
What do you guys think, considering that I haven't even read through a prep book yet?</p>
<p>if you didn’t prep at all i would at least do that by yurself before you take a course. cracking the psat is a good prep book. start with that and see how you do…you never know…</p>
<p>I’d do the College Board SAT book questions (from real SAT tests). My son also did the SAT in 7th grade for Johns Hopkins–for the PSAT (he took in 10th grade for practice) he basically used SAT prep.</p>
<p>Good luck.</p>
<p>If you take a course, try to time your SAT so that it too will benefit. If you take an entire course and then wait until April to take your SAT, you may have lost some of what you learned in the course. National Merit is a big achievement- if your mother really wants you to score that high on the PSAT, take the opportunity and use it to your advantage for the SAT.</p>
<p>depending on the school you choose, nat’l merit can mean tens of thousands of dollars for college. if a course helps you get there, it’s worth it, from a purely financial standpoint.</p>
<p>I’d read xiggi’s advice (above in his own thread). It’s very valuable! It’s what my son has done for a while (on our own) & it really worked.</p>