At my school, it is required to take it. Midterms are also the day after the PSAT. Should I even bother trying/studying for the PSAT? I want to take the ACT anyway because in a prep course, I consistently did way better on the ACT than the SAT.
Your school should provide the PSAT practice test or you can print it out from the CB site. I would try that - it will only take a few hours - just so that you are comfortable with the format of the test going in. You can also evaluate wrong answers to see if there are any patterns behind your mistakes.