<p>I'm a sophomore in high school and I recently got my PSAT scores from earlier in the school year. I got a composite score of 191 (60CR 68M 63W) without studying. This was my 3rd time taking the test (I took it in the 8th and 9th grades; didn't practice for those, either) and here are my scores:</p>
<p>8th: 50CR 53M 54W (157)
9th: 61CR 59M 53W (173)</p>
<p>I think that if I actually practiced, my score would get better. What score should I aspire to get for eligibility for these scholarships? There is no minimum score published.</p>
<p>Are you talking about becoming a National Merit Finalist (NMF)?</p>
<p>Also, are you African American for National Achievement (NA)</p>
<p>The cutoff for NMSF/F is by state. I think the cut-off for NA is by region. </p>
<p>Practice for the test. You need to raise your score a good bit for NMSF for Georgia.</p>
<p>Thanks! My counselor was completely wrong.</p>
<p>Just google the National Merit Cutoffs by state. They vary drastically, as high as 220’s to qualify.</p>
<p>Just do practice tests from SAT review books. For me, writing was killer since you can’t miss a lot since they don’t curve writing scores too much (80 M, 71 CR, 57W…).</p>
<p>Also, do they have cutoffs for the National Achievement? Is it done the same way as National Merit?</p>
<p>They do have cutoffs for NA, which tend to be quite lower than the cutoffs for NM. The best way to practice is to take past PSAT tests or SAT tests. There’s a plethora of past official PSAT tests online. To find them, just Google the phrase:</p>
<p>“if you can eliminate one or more choices as wrong, you increase your chances” filetype: pdf </p>
<p>(keep the quotation marks. take the space out between the : and pdf.) You can also find the answer keys and cutoffs for each state kind of easily. You can PM me if you need any help finding them. Last years’ Georgia cutoff was 214, so optimally you’d want to aim for 217 or higher to be safe.</p>
<p>Okay, thanks everyone! You’ve all been an immense help!</p>