<p>I’m going to take a different tactic since I come from an urban area.</p>
<p>Yes. You should study for the PSAT.</p>
<p>Here’s why. The tests are a measure of what you know and what you’ve learned but there are strategies for how to take the test. We discovered, locally, that a number of bright students were scoring lower because they were unfamiliar with the methods, the types of questions, and determining what has been asked of them.</p>
<p>The PSAT is known for throwing in “distractions.” I.e. data that isn’t needed to solve the problem. It is also known for throwing in the answer to a part of the solution in addition to the actual solution. There are often red herrings and false leads.</p>
<p>So understanding the nature of the test and the way the questions are phrased is helpful. It’s also a good indicator of places where you can go back and review something.</p>
<p>I don’t believe in “test prep” courses since they inflate the scores and schools are starting to be wary - especially of students with perfect scores.</p>
<p>But for many students, becoming familiar with the test and getting some additional knowledge under their belts is helpful. I’m tutoring one of my daughter’s friends and am horrified to see what foundational issues were missed by the district but also helping her understand that the district method of doing long convoluted equations won’t work as a methodology for the PSAT. That the PSAT is testing to see if the student understands the overall “concepts” not how to do long strings of computations. That allowed her to look for what the base concept was and work faster. Similarly - when I pointed out to my own D on the SSAT a year ago that with only 30 seconds to answer each question she had to look “deeper”, she performed better.</p>
<p>Again - it depends on where you’re currently going to school and what methodology the school employs day-to-day. Here in my city there’s a disconnect between education and knowledge needed to gain entrance to college (sigh). The kids get to the test and don’t know what they’re doing. I was shocked to learn that while my D is taking the PSAT as a required exam in 10th grade at boarding school, her friends are taking it at public school only if they apply and can pay $16. Hence the district wide average is less than half a perfect score on an ACT/SAT (not a typo). </p>
<p>One note - if you don’t “feel like studying” that’s fine, but I hope that’s not the approach to the college process in general.</p>