When people think about the PSAT, some probably think of it as a pre-SAT. The preliminary SAT, while it is a great practice for the SAT, holds more weight than just a trial run of the SAT. Doing poorly on the exam will not hurt your college admissions chances; but, doing well on it could help bring in lots of scholarships. While the PSAT will not count towards your college admissions applications, it is the qualifying test for the National Merit Scholarship. With a National Merit Scholarship, students can win a $2500 scholarship from the National Merit Corporation, and some colleges offer large scholarships to those students with higher scores.

MSMS requires all juniors to take the PSAT to give them a good start with preparing for college scholarships. As it grows closer to Wednesday (Oct. 14), the date in which the Juniors are scheduled to take the PSAT, you can see them studying all over campus: outside the dorms, in small groups in the library and even on the stairs of Hooper.

Damare Baker said she is practicing weekly. “The things that will be coming up on the test I am already learning in class and I am doing great with the writing and English part, but on weekends I practice on the math portion,” she said.

MSMS senior Khadiya Smith reminisced on her studying for the PSAT, “I remember doing a few practice test and studying with my friends, but I wish I had done more to get a better score.” During the 2014 – 2015 school term, one of the seniors, Kate Johnson, Class of 2015, sent out 20 vocabulary words a week to help the juniors prepare for the PSAT. “If a junior asked me for advice in studying for the PSAT, I would tell them to study over time and not all at once or right before the test,” Smith said.
The official PSAT website offers practice test for the national exam and is a great practicing tool for students who will be faced with the test.