<p>I've been on this forum for a few months now and have appreciated the information and experience shared regarding the Nationa Merit process. My daughter has qualified for NMSF with a 214 and we have a question concerning the next step.</p>
<p>I've seen 1960 mentioned by many as the minimum SAT score required to move to Finalist status (along with the other criteria). I called NMSC headquarters and they confirmed that score. However, they told me (and it's confirmed on their website) that they only include the critical reading, the math and the multiple-choice portion of the writing section. (In other words, they subtract the essay score from the writing section score).</p>
<p>The website also says that the essay score is about 30% of the writing score. My question is: how do you determine how much of the writing score counts toward the 1960 needed to advance to NMF? Is it a straight 30% formula? Or is figured differently? For example, my daughter got a 730 in writing. However, she did significantly better in the multiple-choice as she answered all the questions correctly. She did average in the essay portion (receiving only 6 out of 12 possible points).</p>
<p>She has a 2080 overall score from last spring. If you say that the multiple-choice is worth 70% of the 800 possible points in writing, then, even though she got all multiple-choice correct, she would only have 560 from the multiple choice. She would drop 170 points (730-560) on the writing portion counted toward the 1960 - leaving her at 1910.</p>
<p>Am I figuring this properly? When I spoke with NMSC, the woman I spoke with wasn't able to confirm one way or the other. I'm supposed to hear back from somebody "in the know" in 5-7 business days. Anyone with experience or insight who can help me here?</p>
<p>We're trying to determine if she needs to take the SAT again. She's taken the ACT and scored a 33 composite which is what she'll submit to schools. She doesn't really study for standardized tests (other than reviewing for a couple hours the night before) so I think she could raise it this fall if she did, but we want to spare her the hassle and pressure of taking it again if it's not required.</p>
<p>I’d imagine they’d “scale it up” and weight the writing multiple choice more (like in the PSAT). If you get 70 out of 80 questions on the writing multiple choice, that counts as 700.</p>
<p>“Authorized SAT administrations
Scores earned on national administrations of the SAT from October 2010 through December 2012 will be
considered by NMSC. NMSC will not accept scores from a national SAT administration taken earlier than
October 2010 or later than December 2012. Your critical reading score, mathematics score, and writing
multiple-choice subscore [CR + M + W(mc)] will be the basis for determining whether you meet the confirming
score requirement.”</p>
<p>So you can have a composite score WELL ABOVE 2000, and still not satisy the 1960 “verification” requirement??? !!!</p>
<p>"Understanding Your Scores
The writing section contains an essay (about 30% of your score) and three types of multiple-choice questions (about 70% of your score), which are:
ESSAY
The essay measures your ability to:</p>
<p>Develop a point of view on an issue presented in an excerpt
Support your point of view using reasoning and examples from your studies, experience, or observations
Follow the conventions of Standard Written English </p>
<p>MULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONS
Multiple-choice questions ask you to select the right answer from the several possible answers presented.
Improving Sentences questions
IMPROVING SENTENCESImproving sentences questions measure your ability to:
Recognize and correct faults in usage and sentence structure
Recognize effective sentences that follow the conventions of Standard Written English </p>
<p>Identifying Sentence Errors questions
IDENTIFYING SENTENCE ERRORSIdentifying sentence errors questions measure your ability to:
Recognize faults in usage
Recognize effective sentences that follow the conventions of Standard Written English </p>
<p>Improving Paragraphs questions
IMPROVING PARAGRAPHSImproving paragraphs questions measure your ability to:
Edit and revise sentences in the context of a paragraph or an entire essay
Organize and develop paragraphs in a coherent and logical manner
Apply the conventions of Standard Written English</p>
<p>Note on Collegeboard on your scores, you receive what your 200-800 (or 20-80) writing score would be for just multiple choice. For example, perfect multiple choice appears as 80, that would count as 800 for the score confirmation purposes.</p>
<p>I highly doubt they only use 70% of the writing score. It seems more plausible that they would remove the essay, and scale up the MC subscore, in which case your D will have an 800 writing/2150.</p>
<p>Scaling it based on the percentage of correct multiple choice questions seems like it would be a much more fair representation of the PSAT SCORE (and it would give DD a 2141 SAT and she got a 222 on PSAT - a very close verification!)</p>
<p>TXArchitect: IMO you are thinking about this too deeply. Your D received a scaled subscore on the multiple-choice part of the writing exam. It will be two digits and (from what you tell us) probably somewhere between 70 to 80. Take this score and multiply it by 10. Add that to math + CR. If she is over 2000 you are good. This method reproduces the PSAT test which, does not include an essay.</p>
<p>TXArchitect: when I look at D2’s SAT breakdown for writing online, I see that the score for the multiple choice of the writing section is 2 digits. If I add a 0 to the end of that to standardize the format itt actually brings her composite score up, because she “only” got an 8 on the essay. Not taking the essay into account raises the score for my D</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses! It sounds like removing the essay portion will raise her score 70 points to a 2150 for PSAT verification purposes. </p>
<p>That would be a relief. If she wants to take the SAT again to try and raise it some more, at least she’ll know NMF status isn’t riding on it.</p>
<p>When I hear back from NMSC re: this, I’ll post what they tell me. I’m sure it’ll confirm what Descartez and others have said about how they score the SAT for NMF consideration. I should hear back this week.</p>
<p>Page 2 of the document linked below at the NMSC website says – “Your critical reading score, mathematics score, and writing multiple-choice subscore [CR + M + W(mc)] will be the basis for determining whether you meet the confirming score requirement.”</p>
<p>I interpret the “W(mc)” number to be __ x 10. For my D, her PSAT score of 224 matches perfectly with a 2240 (700 + 760 + 780*) score on the SAT.</p>
<p>I just spoke with someone at NMC. She again confirmed that the required SAT score is 1960, using the formula posted above. CR+Math+Multiple Choice Writing - (adding a zero to the MC Writing score).</p>
<p>Thank you SoonerMom (which I ALMOST was…our dogs Boomer and Norman are STILL very upset their girl is going to 'BAMA)</p>
<p>Panic over. I had been using the CORRECT ANSWERS number for the Writing section, but went back on CB site and opened the details page, and WaaLaa! Her Multiple Choice score was there, and, sure enough, when multiplied by 10 actually increased her overall score.</p>
<p>So, back to looking for those all-important game-day dresses…Thank to all for input.</p>
<p>You take the Writing subscore of the Multiple Choice questions and multiply by 10.</p>
<p>So, look at the SAT W section and look for the Multiple Choice subscore…</p>
<p>if the MC subscore is - say - 70, then multiply by 10 and get 700.</p>
<p>Then you add the 700 to the Math + CR score.</p>
<p>Usually this odd scoring only becomes an issue if the student’s SAT score is close to 1960. I don’t think we’ve ever seen someone with a 2000+ not have a high enough score (using subscore) to make NMF.</p>