<p>I'm thinking of buying the blue book from collegeboard to help me on the PSAT? Is it useful? Also, should I buy other study books/materials? If so, what other books/materials do you recommend? Thanks soo much!! (:</p>
<p>oh and what edition should i get for the blue book?</p>
<p>The second edition. Don’t bother to get both, because the second edition is basically the first with more practice tests.</p>
<p>If you want to take a bunch of practice tests, then I’d recommend getting PR as well. Barron’s is also great, but only for its strategies. I’m not too fond of the practice tests in Barron’s.</p>
<p>Acing the PSAT/SAT is all about practice, so yeah just practice practice practice. I know that Collegeboard sells past PSATs, so that may help as well.</p>
<p>Thanks!(: But I’m just curious, people say that you should save the blue book for the SAT because you will need it? I’m confused about that because I’m also going to use it for the PSAT…</p>
<p>Well, if you’re studying SAT books to prep for the PSAT, you’re also simultaneously preparing yourself for the SAT as well…</p>
<p>Get other study guides with practice tests, prep yourself with those, and then save the collegeboard tests for last. Since you’re a sophomore, you have plenty of time until the PSAT (you can only qualify to be a NMSF during junior year). What I sometimes do is take all of the practice tests I have, erase the answers, and once some time has passed, I retake the tests.</p>
<p>And as a sophomore, don’t worry about prepping TOO much. Of course, practice is good, but don’t go overboard. The first time I took a practice SAT, I scored in the 1500s. After one year of school though, my score went up to the 1800s (I got a 189 on the PSAT during sophomore year, which was a major fail but anyways). From there, I just took more practice tests and studied a few strategies/vocab/etc to get my scores up to the 2300s. </p>
<p>By the time you finish sophomore year, you’ll probably have learned enough information to boost your score by 20 (or 200 on the SAT) points on the PSAT without much effort involved.</p>
<p>YES! I used the blue book, past SAT questions of the day, and a few other prep books (The SAT Word Slam & Up Your Score) to prepare for my junior year PSAT and they were hugely helpful. My score went up by a lot from freshman year to sophomore year to junior year. I just read through in the blue book about the types of questions and topics that I was concerned about, then did one or two full practice tests. I would recommend signing up for the SAT test that comes soon after you take your junior year PSAT since you will be well-prepped then. Best of luck!!</p>