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From my experience I have to disagree a bit with Menlo. My honors high-GPA child got in the 150s on his PSAT the first time out (9th grade). I thought we had to give up on competitive schools. With a bit of prep, and figuring out what a timed test is, he went up to the 200s for his Junior PSAT and high 2100s on his first SAT. Given this background, I know he can go up further, but its up to him and neither of us thinks its necessarily worth the time or effort. My point is don't think the taking the PSAT cold with no prep necessarily gives you a good idea of how your kid will do. For many kids (like my son and countless others on CC) they can improve dramatically. If I had known this earlier I would have suggested he prep before the junior year PSAT, like Menlo, because if he did as well on the PSAT as he did on the SAT he would have been a NMSF. I just didn't think he was in the ballpark because of the earlier score. And, in retrospect, its foolish to put much stock in the collegeboard's representations that scores can be predicted from earlier scores or that they measure natural ability or aptitude.
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