<p>Do colleges see PSAT scores, or is it mainly for scholarships and for summer programs like RSI? What are the best prep books? Does anyone here prep during the summer for the PSAT?</p>
<p>colleges may see psat scores, but really don't care about them, nor do they put them in 'your' file. If you take the test, and mark Participate in College Search service, then you will recieve a buch of marketing materials from schools you've never heard of (and many you have heard of).</p>
<p>IMO, students should take the psat Soph year for practice. And, if a high score is earned (185+), then prep hard after soph year. A score of 202 earns one commended; semi-finalist in Calif is ~217. While the Ivies don't care about finalist status, many other schools do, and provide a 50% tuition reduction, regardless of need.</p>
<p>Since the psat is just the SAT w/o writing (and AlgII questions), get the CollegeBoard SAT books. Search the cc archives for the Xiggi method.</p>
<p>oops , sorry, the Xiggi method is labeled at the top of this thread.</p>
<p>I prepped for the October 2004 PSAT with the Princeton-Review PSAT book in September-early October, and I went from a 160 soph. year to a 205 junior year.</p>
<p>Has anyone used Barrons or Kaplan? Or is PR the accepted norm? I might check out the Official Guide bluebayou, thanks.</p>
<p>If your going to prep for the psat use kaplan FOR SURE. It is sooo much better than princeton review. Don't just believe me, check amazon.com and other websites.</p>
<p>Quick I'm going to BN right now....is Kaplan the best?</p>
<p>I used Kaplan and got a 216 junior year. I didn't take it soph year.</p>
<p>I checked it out, looks pretty good. But what is the overall consensus?</p>
<p>I went from a 202 to a 235 soph to junior with no prep. I was like "woah"</p>
<p>i took at class at my high school to prep for the psat since i thought it would be cool to be a national merit scholar and i jumped from a 199 to 220 - we didnt really use a book, the teacher kind of just taught us the basic tricks since he is part of the collegeboard</p>
<p>Does anyone recommend those Kaplan/PR type classes for PSAT-prep?</p>
<p>Dude - don't buy a book other than 10 real SAT's (the blue book). It would be a mistake. For PSAT prep, just do Xiggi for the real SAT. The PSAT is JUST like the SAT.</p>
<p>Yeah, just don't get a book marketed specifically for the PSAT. Buy one that also prepares you for the SAT. The tests are so similiar anyway. You might as well prep for the higher level math on the SAT while prepping for the PSAT. It's like killing two birds with one... uh... book.</p>