Class of 2021 National Merit Thread

As our household begins our week-of-waiting for our kid#3’s PSAT scores, I thought I might find insights here. I’ve been through this rodeo a couple times already, but somehow it doesn’t feel any easier! Please post here when you get scores back. Include your state when you post. Good luck!

I’m definitely more anxious than my daughter. She took the SAT two weeks after and has, I believe, the confirming score ready to go. It’s all new to us. Fingers crossed.

@mmom99 , thanks for starting this thread! Does anyone know the timeline for when and how homeschoolers find out their scores? We are in Texas so collegeboard says December 11th. I’m assuming that is when he can log into his account to see the score but I was wondering if a paper copy would be mailed to me sooner as his “guidance counselor” if you will. He took the test at his local districted high school and was bubbled in for schooled at home.

@TXRunningMom , according to the collegeboard website and my prior experience, they mail homeschoolers our results to our home address. IME, they arrived sometime a few days after they are released to schools – so, generally a bit before most schools inform their students. In 2013 (my first time through this rodeo), our scores arrived at the end of the week when they were first released to schools at the beginning of the week. Based on that, I am expecting them in the mail at the end of this week (since they are being released to schools today).

I think all kids – homeschoolers included – should also be able to log in to their accounts and see their scores on whichever day our state is released.

Thank you for starting this thread! We are in Texas like @TXRunningMom. I have put the app Puffin Lite on my phone (mobile web browser) so hopefully I can get D’s score next Monday, 2 days before when they are released to Texas. I am pulling for all of your kiddos!!! This mom over here is like the Mervyn’s lady with my face pressed against the glass. “Open, Open, Open”.

@TXRunningMom I think I remember a HS mom calling a couple years ago to see if she could login as a guidance counselor to get the scores early. Didn’t work for her.
My memory is fuzzy on this, but I’m pretty sure paper reports took awhile to go out. Logging in was faster.

Good luck to everyone! My D21 didn’t take the PSAT because she’s not the test taker my NMF D19 was, but I’m cheering for y’all.

Thanks for starting this thread. This is round 2 for us (first child a junior in college), and it is hard for the second child for so many different reasons. As I understand, school should be able to access score today, but an involved teacher friend thought our brand new counselor might not know how!! Ugh. We are Louisiana.

Good luck!!! Last year DD20 texted me her PSAT score when I was at the mall. I didn’t really understand the SI at the time so I had to google, then I walked around in a daze for a while when I realized she’d done it (her soph year psat was mid 1300’s so she was by no means a sure bet).

Ok, anxiety over here. So please experienced parent talk me down. I won’t get D’s scores till next week. Looking at the brutal curve on the Oct 16th PSAT, should I be worried ?
My thinking is: since Oct 16th is the main administration, then 90% of kids will be affected by the brutal curve. So the SI cutoffs very well likely will be coming down.

I don’t see how state SI scores can go up or even remain the same if 90% of kids have this terrible curve.

Best case for us is -2 reading -1 writing = 222 in Texas. She came out of PSAT thinking she missed those but of course she could have missed more.

NVM

@biscuiteers on PDF pages 17-18 (printed page numbers 15-16) here: https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/psat-nmsqt-understanding-scores.pdf

I checked our D’s home access site where we see her grades and her PSAT score was there. Maybe that could work for those of you who have a network like that.

@BingeWatcher I think the curve was like this last year and I don’t believe any (or very few?) state’s SI cut off changed. It stayed the same here in Illlinois. We’ve typically had 30 or so NMSFs and our school only had 19 last year!

@BingeWatcher You can check threads from last year but IIRC, the second test date had a much harsher curve than the first. This year it appears to have reversed. Fingers crossed for your child! I know how much this result means to your family.

@homerdog can you see this year’s PSAT score? I can see my son’s last year one but not this year. He is a junior now BTW.

Good luck to you all and your talented kids!! Last year around this time I was on pins and needles waiting to see my score. I’d taken a full practice test with a great score… then ended up with a score that was just below the class of 2019 cutoff for CA. So I thought I was done in, and made all my college plans assuming I wouldn’t get NMSF… then the cutoff went down! I’m sure you/your kids are going to have great options! I pretty much had everything figured out already; the NMSF was just a great surprise.

@Suave123 , @mamaedefamilia @homerdog ,

Last year she missed 5 writing and 2 reading and SI score 220.

if she missed 5 in writing and 2 in reading on this exam her SI score would 212

This years main PSAT has a much worse curve. I really think this will bring down many states SI cutoff since 90% of kids took this test.

@Suave123 yes I can see this year’s score. @BingeWatcher I hope the SI’s go down for your sake! But I think it’s been a long time since SI’s have gone down. Two years ago was the first year that Illinois kids all had to take the PSAT and our SI didn’t move.

@homerdog

California went down 1 point last year. That is significant given the huge population.

@BingeWatcher CA was at the tippy top of SI scores, right? I would guess it’s more likely for an SI to go down when it’s at 222 or 223.