<p>I totally agree that getting started early is key. My D2 balked last year when I wanted her to take the PSAT as a soph for practice, no prep except looking at the instruction booklet so that she understood what was on the test and how it was structured and scored. Luckily our state legislature decided to have all sophs take the PSAT and paid for them. Once all of her friends were taking it there was much less resistance ;). Of course, that didn’t mean that she believed me when I told her she shouldn’t guess unless she could narrow the number of answers down and she ended up with much lower scores that she’s used to—probably the best wake-up call possible!</p>
<p>In addition to NHRP, PSAT prep is really 80% of SAT prep so it helps the kids to do well on their SATs; and it can get them ready to take it relatively early (fall/winter of jr yr) which I’m an advocate for.</p>
<p>OT for this thread, but other things that I think are helpful to start early are: planning class schedules for all 4 years of HS and getting information about URM summer programs.</p>