A public-service campaign to get students to start preparing for college appears to be working, according to survey data released by the Ad Council, a nonprofit group.

The KnowHow2GO campaign, which began in January 2007, seems to be grabbing middle- and high-school students’ attention, with 63 percent of survey respondents saying they remembered seeing at least one of the messages.

The announcements, made on radio, on television, at bus stops, and via the Internet and other media, started out promoting general college preparedness but are now urging students to take tougher high-school courses to meet college entrance requirements.

In response to the campaign, 91 percent of the students surveyed said they had spoken with an adult about getting prepared for college (up from 80 percent in 2007), and 69 percent said they had discussed being academically prepared for college (up from 49 percent).

“These survey findings indicate that the campaign message is taking hold and students are taking action,” said Molly Corbett Broad, president of the American Council on Education, which co-sponsors the KnowHow2GO project with the Lumina Foundation for Education. —Megan Eckstein