My sophomore son wants to take the PSAT this fall just to get a baseline, he took it as a freshman cold turkey and didn’t even quite finish! Anyway, he thought that if he spent 5-6 hours before this PSAT that would give him a baseline idea of what to focus on. Then between sophomore and junior year summer he was planning to sign up for SAT prep classes that were more intense. Does getting a high score on the junior year PSAT really make that much difference? Is National Merit Scholar actually yield anything or would it be better to prep for the real SAT junior year instead of PSAT? Any good, free resources to look at before we spend the big bucks on the real prep program?
Natl Merit = a full ride or free tuition at some schools. So it could mean $400k in savings. - although that assumes you are looking at the most expensive schools.
At most, NMF yields little but if you were interested in Tulsa (full ride), Alabama (5 years tuition, 4 years housing and $4k a year, and others like UTD, Oklahoma, some Florida and Texas publics and more - yes it can be extremely lucrative. For most others, a small scholarship to no $$
Given only a small amount get, I don’t think you can take a kid who couldn’t finish and make them a creme de la creme expert. Personally I don’t think it’s a goal I’d task my kids with. I think in general, you know up front, if a kid can ace a test yes, they can improve by learning strategies but I don’t think from average to perfect
As for prep, kids all learn differently. Some self study on line (khan academy), some with books, some with a 1:1 tutor and some in a group session. Of course anything with tutoring has a cost.
You can ask your school counselor or other parents for local recommendations.
But yes I’d take it Fall of Junior year followed up by the SAT/ACT starting in Spring.
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Did your school not sponsor PSAT9 and PSAT10 tests? Those are available as practice tests before the 11th grade PSAT and can be helpful at predicting scores.
Prep for the SAT if you want, but take the PSAT first (SAT prep should benefit him on the PSAT, too). It’s probably better not to have too many sittings for the SAT, so the PSAT is still worthwhile experience for the real thing. But there are ways to get around paying exorbitant amount for SAT prep – use the Khan Academy videos, as well as the resources College Board provides, as well as taking some practice tests at home to get a feel for it. You can do this before the PSAT. After the PSAT, you can identify areas to work on before the SAT, and at that point, if you want to pay for a tutor for some targeted help, you can (and hopefully minimize the tutoring at that point, because SAT prep really is expensive). If it seems like the free resources are helping, by all means continue to use those.
Yes, NMF could be worth it if there are scholarships at a school your son wants to attend, and it’s a nice honor to list on a college app, but so few get it that I would set that goal aside and just focus on using the pre-SAT tests to get experience maximize his actual SAT score. If he gets NMF, that’s gravy.
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For my 3 kids, we did SAT studying between 10th and 11th grade. They all took the August SAT, October PSAT and then the November SAT. In all 3 cases, their November scores were the highest. My oldest is NMF, middle is commended and we are hopeful the youngest is NMSF.
I don’t think there is a need for specific PSAT prep. Do the SAT and the PSAT comes naturally. We used the bluebook tests to figure out what areas of prep were needed, watched various You Tube videos on those sections, did more practice problems and more bluebook tests. Each of mine had sections they were better at, so some tests they only did the section they needed more work on. Learning the material in areas they are struggling in is key, but also just doing more problems/questions to get better at figuring it all out helps after a certain point.
My oldest is enjoying his near free-ride at Alabama and will come out with a master’s in engineering with his total cost under $20k, as we’ll pay room and board for year 5. Add in some for flights as well.
Even if you aren’t interested in the schools with the large scholarships, many places offer $1k+ to NMF, which always helps.
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Thanks for sharing!
Yes, he is taking the PSAT at school. My son has absolutely no clue where he wants to go so hoping to keep options open. We have seen a few paid SAT options and are considering those. I also wonder if he might do better with ACT.
My son scored/estimated score 1100 as a freshman and he said he didn’t finish the test, he aced the math but the English score wasn’t high. With the section scores he didn’t really know what to do to improve his scoring. He wasn’t upset or stressed, he went in cold turkey not even understanding the exact sections, etc. I just want to make sure he tries the PSAT this time around and he gets the feedback so he know how the test works and then he can decide if he wants to try to make the big effort before the real SAT or jump ship and work on ACT.
I think 1100 is great. And don’t forget he was in 9th grade. And you learned he’ll need more help in English. So before getting into paid options, you can use Khan Academy or buy a test prep book for studies in those areas. They often teach things like eliminating choices - so now your guess is 1 in 2 or 1 in 3 - like in comprehension.
As for SAT/ACT, stick with one. If after three tries your superscore isn’t where you want it to be, you can try the other. But if you mix, you lose superscore opportunities. My kid got his best score and $4k more in merit with his 6th and last ACT. His school only does single test for merit but many superscore.
You might find this thread helpful. Big merit NMF/NMSF schools and their specialties
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It’s worth looking into the ACT. Both of my kids did significantly better on the ACT than the SAT, for some reason.
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