Does anyone have any idea what the thresholds tend to be for National Merit commendations/semi-finalists/scholarships? I can't understand the "selection index score".... |
"How is the Selection Index calculated?
The Selection Index is double the sum of your Reading and Writing (RW) score, and Math score divided by 10. Alternatively, you can simply drop the last zero on your section scores, double the RW and add the Math. For example, a student with scores of 690 RW and 720 M would have a Selection Index of 69 x 2 + 72 = 210. You cannot directly calculate a Selection Index from a Total Score (320 – 1520). For students entering the competition with an SAT score through Alternate Entry, note that — when calculating a Selection Index — each SAT section is capped at 760. If, for example, you have a 700 RW and 800 Math, your Selection Index would be 70 x2 + 76 = 216." https://www.compassprep.com/psat-national-merit-faq/ |
basically they scale it to each state/region. So the bar for say Virginia might be higher than WVA.
In this region you basically need a near perfect score to make the cut |
If you are a NMSF- your high school will notified your student. And you have fill up other forms and applications to receive NMF status and to be eligible for scholarships. |
Compass Prep's site is updated today. It sounds like most 1400 and up will be Commended for the class of 2025. The full projection will be back on Nov 15th once the batch of scores is done.
The NMSF cut-off is highest in the country in DC proper. Which means you basically had to have missed 2 or fewer questions. In MD or VA it's like 5 or 6 questions. |
You can see your percentile within your state, so I'd assume you need to be 99th to have a shot. |
Selection Index cutoff for Commended Scholar status was 207 this year. As others have said, the Selection Index for NMSF consideration varies from state to state.
In the State of California, you needed a 221 this year. So a kid with 220 fell short of NMSF status, despite the fact that the kids from 44 or 45 other states qualified with the same or lower Selection Index. |
yep. If you live in Montana you can basically get 20 more questions wrong for NMSF than you can if you live in DC. |
Seems like overall things will be different this year w the digital psat |
How will things be different with/the digital? |
How do you find out the "raw" scores that are used to calculate the selection index? |
On the score report I would imagine? |
Compass has access to all the scores that came out today and it looks like they are similar but a touch higher than the scores from the past 5 years. (Commended scholar range will likely be a point higher than last year). There is a second and final dump of scores that will be released on Nov 16th and at that point they will know the rest. https://www.compassprep.com/national-merit-semifinalist-cutoffs/ |
If you get a perfect PSAT are you pretty much guaranteed NMSF? |
At least in years past, you would get a notice that you fell in the top percentages, but you didn’t know if you were a finalist until the fall of senior year. |