<p>Are you saying that the PSAT is mandatory to take in all ACT states so that the population size matches that of SAT states?</p>
<p>On the actual SAT, Massachusetts has an average score of 1550 and a PSAT of 223 needed for cutoff, while Illinois has as average SAT score of 1780 and a PSAT cutoff of 214.</p>
<p>… Hm, perhaps the size of the population actually matters to understand what the scores in a state mean. Fewer people, fewer qualifying scores, so the score cutoff drops. More people more scores. Score cutoff increases.</p>