My 10th grader is taking it.
Our school is strange. For free-- Horrors students (math or English) in 9th grade take it. All tenth graders take it. 11th graders take it if they have a gpa of 3.4 or above. I bet if you had a slightly lower gpa in 11th you could ask to take it if you wanted to.
I hope he does well this year. Last year he didn't get to all the questions and still did fairly well. He has extremely slow processing and anxiety. This year he has college board extended time for all college board tests.
He is funny he said he read national merit is so hard to get that statistically not going to happen. I told him of all the kids at his school he is one (of the statistical few) who has a shot at it. No pressure but you never know.