I had no idea what a PSAT was until I showed up in the morning one day and they shoved it in front of me at 7AM in the morning. I'd gotten 2 hours of sleep and was a wreck because of my difficult home life and felt like I was going to throw up.

I later found out that I'd missed national merit by 2%, and that the PSAT was something that people with supportive families were not only told about ahead of time, but actively prepared for, sometimes even taken the -real- SAT as practice. I wish I'd known, or that the counselors had told me that it was something important. I do very well on standardized tests, and I'm sure that if I'd gotten at least 4-6 hours of sleep I'd have made NMS quite easily.

I don't think this is the way things work anymore. I went to a top private high school. My research into college admissions and applications centered around Google and online forums. I don't think I asked my counselors about anything.

Did you take the PSAT, and if so, how did you get it arranged?

Wow, didn't even notice this. Thanks.

They announced PSAT and SAT dates during "home room" with appropriate registration deadlines. But for other college stuff, I really did rely entirely on the interwebs.

Poor kid: what's a school counselor?!

I'm not that poor, but my school counselor did ask me if MIT was in Michigan. He was very good with parole officers, though.