I'm late on this, but DS 15 took psat in Oct. He said it was easy.
I am familiar with SSAT a little. We were looking at boarding schools for DS 13 last year and they require SSAT (apparently they couldn't care less what ACT/SAT scores are!). The SSAT is offered 3 hrs away a couple times in fall/winter. I was going to schedule it but it was about $100 and when I asked DS if he was serious about applying, he couldn't give me a firm answer, so I bagged it. It turned out he chose to attend the boarding school 5 blocks from my house that doesn't require SSAT, but has its own entrance exam. It's going very well for him. Plus he received almost a full scholarship. He's excited that he'll take 4 college courses senior yr (it has a jr college too) and credits transferred and he played varsity soccer (while older brother didn't get as much playing time at the local HS).
For DS 11, I'm still considering SSAT so he has more options.
