<p>What are my chances at semi-final? Final? Once a finalist, do scores still count or is every person considered to have an equal chance at that point?</p>
<p>An unrelated question: Are the SAT I and PSAT scoring curves similar? I had gotten 3 wrong in each section of the PSATS, which took the greatest toll of 100 points in Math. Although Math consistently has the toughest curve of the three sections when up in the 700s, I've never seen one that harsh. Is that to be expected on an SAT?</p>
<p>Well, I'm not really planning on taking the new SAT at the moment. In fact, I already took the SATs Dec 4 and will probably get my scores next week. But, back to the National Merit... once a semi-finalist, you have to fill out some sort of application, right? So at that point or at any other point in the process are scores still taken into consideration or are decisions made solely based on the applications? I had heard recently about a kid who scored an 800 on all three sections of the PSATs (only 6 others in the state matched his score), but he did not receive the scholarship... So this leads me to believe the latter...</p>