<p>My school offers the PSAT's for all 9th, 10th, and 11th graders. For the test fee, which is $13, is already paid by the county for the 10th graders, but juniors and freshman have the option of if they want to take it and paying the feel. In the booklet that was handed out to all 9th, 10th, and 11th graders, (regardless of whether you will be taking the PSAT), and based from what I read that juniors are only qualified for to compete in the program, the National Merit Scholarship, or if you will take high school for 3 years. Just to make sure, is it true only juniors qualify for the scholarships, but not the sophomores(though the test is already paid for them) or freshmen? Thanks.</p>
<p>Only juniors can qualify for the National Merit Scholarship.</p>
<p>so if you were a sophomore or freshmen, would you take it if you wanted practice for the SAT’s, and if you scored high, would it look nice to colleges on your resume?</p>
<p>If you were an underclassmen, colleges wouldn’t care. I’d just take it to see how the SAT works (formatting, question-types/styles, etc.). My high school offered this to underclassmen too for free, and I got to see how my scores increased over the years.</p>
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<p>No; colleges don’t see your PSAT score.</p>
<p>^On the contrary, if you’re nominated as a commended student, you can elect to send your PSAT score to two colleges of your choosing for free. </p>
<p>Of course, whether or not those colleges would care, that’s up for debate.</p>
<p>okay, so do scores usually improve if you take it more than once? or is there any possibility that may lower your grade.</p>
<p>It depends on how you are as a student. I was simply unprepared the first time in terms of the SAT itself when I took it the first time. As I took it more and more, I got used to how the timing worked out, how the questions were being asked, and I scored higher. </p>
<p>If you’ve done the SAT before, then you’d be familiar with the formatting, so it might take some studying or preparation to actually improve your score. </p>
<p>Generally however, the more times you take an SAT (unofficially - colleges aren’t fond of people who submit from 5 different SAT scores), the better you get at it.</p>
<p>Take the PSAT every year you have an opportunity. You will typically improve your score each time. Hopefully, by the time you’re a junior, you’ll have a high score.</p>
<p>My school offered the PSAT to all non-seniors. Only juniors qualify for the scholarships, as I’m sure somebody has already said in this thread.</p>
<p>My freshman year score was good compared to other freshmen, but definitely not good for an actual score. However, as I learned more in HS, obviously my score improved. By the time I took the PSAT last year (my junior year), I was very comfortable with the format. I took my actual SAT the next month. Funny enough, my PSAT score was the exact equivalent of my SAT score. So not only did three PSATs prepare me to be comfortable with SAT format, but my junior year PSAT score would have predicted my SAT score had I received the scores sooner.</p>
<p>I’d definitely recommend taking it as many times as possible, especially for only $13. I can’t even begin to imagine what it would be like to sit down for an SAT without knowing what to expect.</p>
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<p>This is not my understanding of how that works. I believe that the colleges are notified simply of your being Commended, not of your score.</p>
<p>^^ "Only juniors qualify for the scholarships, "</p>
<p>Actually, the rule is “in your third year”. Not everyone does grades 9-12 in four years. I took the PSAT as a senior. Other exceptions are made on an ad hoc basis.</p>
<p>At some point, my daughter was asked to give the name of two schools she wanted her PSAT scores sent to. She is NMSF, but this was in May, long before the cutoffs were announced. I think it is the commended cutoff that was used.</p>
<p>We decided which two based on the top two schools on her list we thought might actually care (Stanford would probably not care…). As far as I can tell, neither school has contacted beyond the usual.</p>
<p>*This is not my understanding of how that works. I believe that the colleges are notified simply of your being Commended, not of your score. *</p>
<p>I agree.</p>
<p>*We decided which two based on the top two schools on her list we thought might actually care (Stanford would probably not care…). As far as I can tell, neither school has contacted beyond the usual. *</p>
<p>It was our experience that the NMF schools that do a lot of contacting are the ones who give big scholarships…like Baylor, Bama, Oklahoma, etc. The ones who give modest scholarships didn’t seem to do a lot of contacting except for Tulane.</p>
<p>I think those schools contact you weather or not you list them as one of the two (based on my daughter mail - both email and snail mail)</p>
<p>But it is a nice way to show a school you are interested in them. LACs like that.</p>