<p>I never understood it. People are so worried and into their PSAT scores here...it's almost as if they are as anxious about them as the actual SAT. I took the PSATs during my Freshman and Sophmore years and I didn't even study for them because I was under the impression that they are just PRACTICE exams? What's the big deal with them? Isn't it all about the real deal SAT/ACT?</p>
<p>[The same with the PLAN test]</p>
<p>the PSAT is the qualifying test for the National Merit Scholar competition. When you take it your junior year, if you get high enough, you could become a national merit scholar semi-finalist, and then finalist, and then actually win a huge scholarship for college. basically it's all about money and recognition.</p>
<p>but its really hard to qualify. only 55,000 people out of the 1.4 million that take the psat as juniors will even get "commended", and then out of them, only ~16,000(i think) will become semi-finalists. and 15,000 finalists. and then i think like 8,000 people actually win? </p>
<p>either way, you can only qualify your junior year, and people here get really stressed over it lol.</p>
<p>getting national merit scholarships can get you a LOT of money.</p>
<p>it also is a good idea of where you'll end up on the SAT.</p>
<p>Yeah, strongly hoping a National Merit Scholarship make everyone out here pretty stressed! And, I personally think it's sth all of us really try for since we usually think that NOT a lot of people really try out for PSATs and that they just consider it as a practice test for SAT! So, most of us rather think that we DESERVE to win National Merit Scholarhip!(lol!)</p>
<p>lol, yeah.</p>
<p>I didn't know about CC or any of this stuff before I took the PSATs. I didn't prepare or anything. thought of it as practice for the SATs. I ended up commended in a state with a fairly low semifinalist cutoff. so if I'd only known all I do now I probably could have ended up semifinalist.</p>
<p>So not everyone worries about the PSATs, but it does help.</p>