<p>My son in MI only got a 208 on the PSAT yet he got a 34 on his first attempt at the ACT. What does that tell you?</p>
<p>I know it is too early to predict cutoffs for this year’s juniors, but has anyone seen the cutoffs for a state go up more than 3 points in any given year? Daughter got 218 this year in Colorado, (last year’s cutoff was 215). We’re hoping that will make it, as in her case, it’s critical if she is to go to college at all. </p>
<p>Also, on the ‘cutoff’ listed (for previous years) - is that inclusive? If the student scores right on the cutoff, are they qualified as semifinalist or did they just miss it?</p>
<p>If it helps any, lots of kids had H1N1 that week. My daughter had it also, and her practice tests had all came in between 234 and 240. Her ‘real’ test was 218 - not exactly up to her normal standards of performance. Her high fever that day was very likely responsible for the lower score. </p>
<p>Since so many kids were very sick through the testing season, I wonder if the scores (and therefore possibly cutoffs) may be lower this year. At least here, the room was full of kids with fevers, runny noses, upset stomachs, and horrid coughs.</p>
<ol>
<li>I’m fine with that because I did no prep. But I ‘lost’ all my points in the Writing which doesn’t bode well. I probably qualified for National Merit because a friend got a 226 and said he did so ehh, he’s trustworthy.</li>
</ol>
<p>International - 220
77 Critical Reading
80 Math
63 Writing</p>
<p>Absolutely DIED in Identifying Sentence Errors… the score sheet was so beautiful, full of beautiful check marks until I got to that one section… death region… sigh, oh well, I heard that bringing your writing score up is quite easy with a bit of practice. I just hope I can get National Merit, I’m one point off from last year’s international cutoff!! It sucks that we have such a high cutoff… freaking 221…</p>
<p>Just wondering, if you get 99 percentile in your state you get semi-finalist? what about 98 or what? Sorry, i don’t know a lot about the qualifications and stuff. Thanks</p>
<p>god. ok so i posted before with a 224. now im looking over my score report. holy crap. erased 2 right answers on CR, which lowered my score to a 72(im guessing it would have been around a 78 with only 2 wrong). missed a math problem labelled easy. and YOU guys are feeling bad about making stupid mistakes? lol. and writing. WHY DID I PUT 4 STRAIGHT B’s in the end of finding error???HOLY CRAP Y DIDNT I REALIZE THAT 4 answer choices in a row is <1% chance? man im stupid. but still made it NM semi-finalist for sure tho. does anyone know whether colleges care about the title? or what was ur exact PSAT score?</p>
<p>NJ- 212. stupid writing M 80 CR 80 W 52???</p>
<p>223.
80 on Critical Reading (99th percentile), 73 on Math (98th percentile), 70 on Writing (98th percentile). All in all, 99th percentile. I go to school in New Jersey but I’m not a resident of the state… where will I fall when it comes to the National Merit decision, NJ or my home state?</p>
<p>deb83r
New Member</p>
<p>Join Date: Dec 2009
Posts: 2 Oklahoma
224
73 CR 79 Math and 73 Writing </p>
<p>LOL THATS A 225 SMART ONE</p>
<p>and pj it doesnt matter 223 is high enough to be semi-finalist for any state i think</p>
<p>Boarding School - 212
70, 64, 78 (Ironically, I have an A+ in math and am failing english ;))</p>
<p>Although this forum makes me feel rather inadequate, I’m pretty pleased - up 30 points from last year with no studying or anything. Congrats to everyone!</p>
<p>DS got 231 but is a sophomore. Pretty good sign he’ll do well next year, but you never know. There’s always some luck involved. Good luck to all who will be waiting to hear their state’s cutoffs next September.</p>
<p>I’m from California and I got a 210. I thought that was good until I came on this board…lol. But it was still one of the best in my school, so maybe California is lower than other states. My score was in the 98th percentile, so maybe thats fine. Funny though, that everyone took it freshman and sophmore year. My school didn’t even let you take it until junior year.</p>
<p>227 (74 CR; 80 M; 73 W) on Form W, but I’m in the process of appealing a Writing question for a 232. I should hear back soon.</p>
<p>xandra- Don’t worry about it, I didn’t even know about the PSAT until around January. Only one other person in my school took it and neither of us prepped or anything. It was pretty casual.</p>
<p>CR - 74
M - 75
W - 80</p>
<p>Total - 229</p>
<p>In CT btw.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It would be very, very odd for a state’s cutoff to rise more than three in one year. In fact, I believe I have never seen it happen before. 218 this year for Colorado should be good enough qualify for NM. It seems as if finances in your family are tight; I wish you and your daughter the best of luck with the college application (and financial aid) process. I would recommend that she not be stopped from applying to even expensive schools like say UChicago or Ivies as they meet 100% of a family’s need if you can get in. Oh and if she needs NM scholarships (I’m assuming from potential universities), she should be aware that to make Finalist status, she needs to have decent SAT scores (scores comparable to her PSAT score), decent grades in school, and decent rec from I think the principal (not sure from who) of the school. Many colleges won’t give applicants scholarships unless they make Finalist status (Don’t worry tough; about 15000 out of 16000 semifinalists make it to finalist stage). Some do give scholarships to semifinalists though.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>It is indeed inclusive. Anybody at or above the cutoff made it to semifinalist status.</p>
<p>Trying to predict the future here with a score that is right on the border (some years was ok for NMSF, some years was one point under the cutoff) in a high-scoring state. My kid’s overall national percentile is 99th, the CR is 99th+ (80), but the M is 96th and the Writing is 98th nationally…decent but in our state, the score percentiles are 99th, 95th and 97th. I wish the score report would give the overall percentile for our state. College Board must have this. Or is there some way to calculate it?</p>
<p>MomPhD, the percentiles are so coarsely rounded that even state percentiles will not be very helpful in predicting eligibility. Historical scores are significantly more reliable.</p>