Nick's position
Does the 10th-grade PSAT count for National Merit?
“Only the PSAT/NMSQT your child takes in 11th grade counts toward National Merit; the 10th-grade PSAT is practice.”
Nick Standlea
I have said this publicly many times, and I will keep saying it: the only PSAT that counts toward National Merit is the one taken in 11th grade. A sophomore score is a free look at where your child stands. It does not earn anything.
That is why I treat the sophomore test as practice and the junior test as the real one. Use the first to find the weak spots. Use the months after it to fix them.
The point is not to dread the test. The point is that a family who thinks 10th grade counts will relax in the one year they should be planning.
The facts behind it
Is the 10th-grade PSAT worth taking at all?
Yes, as practice: it shows where your child stands a year before the test that counts.