PSAT Will Expand College Testing Stress to Jr. High

The College Board will start offering the PSAT to eighth-graders in 2010, the LA Times reports. Students normally take the exam, a precursor of the SAT, in 10th or 11th grade, but kids have been signing up earlier in recent years. Critics charge that the College Board is pushing the college prep schedule forward to make more profit.

A College Board exec says the voluntary new test "will help schools identify students who have some talent and could likely succeed if they take honors or AP courses, but have not been recognized." Counters a critic: "Now we're going to have a preadmission test to get ready for the preadmission test? To believe you need an eighth-grade test on top of the PSAT and SAT is just insane." (More college board stories.)