Taking PSAT

We were all surprised on Tuesday when we had received an email from school informing us that all students proficient in math and English would be taking PSAT on Wednesday morning. For those who are not familiar with PSAT, it's pretty close to SAT in format and content, with some sections removed and a maximum score of 1520 instead of 1600. It also happens to serve as a qualifier for students hoping to get recognized as National Merit Scholars, so it's a pretty important test for juniors in 11th grade. We had no idea that Smarty's school offers it even to middle schoolers as a way to get familiar with the structure and content of a "high stakes test".
Well, Smarty is no longer a stranger to SAT after having taking it quite successfully last spring. She was excited about a test, except for the "surprise" part of it, because she does not like surprises. However, her excitement was somewhat tempered when she took an online practice test in the afternoon and got "only" 1400 points. She then lamented even more about last minute notice, no time to prepare and having to come to school earlier as usual on Wednesday that normally starts later than usual. I suspect that the school did the surprise for middle schoolers on purpose to get a baseline score for all of them from where they can improve.
Smarty came home from the test absolutely exhausted, since she still had a couple of regular classes after it. She reported that math was "super easy", and English was OK. I am curious to find out how she did, but the results will be available only in December. In any case, it was a good experience, and I am glad that her school invests into its students that way.

Your Turn

How do you feel about early SAT/PSAT testing?