Many schools also have 10th graders take the PSAT. It doesn’t count for NMF, but gives them some practice prior to the 11th grade year. And gives them an idea if they have a shot at NMF. My D2 didn’t study for the 10th grade one, and was one point under our state’s NMF cutoff. It made it clear a bit of studying would be a good idea the next year, and she cleared the NMF cutoff by 20 points in our state in 11th grade.