Can we rely on the Index score cut-offs provided by prep scholar to be accurate?
@3scoutsmom oh, thank you. got it 
Okay so is the scoring still 50% math 50% reading/writing and is the score used for selection the 1520 or the 228? It seems to be the 228. I’m sorry to ask others to do this for me but I don’t know which resources to use. Could anybody tell me how my score looks in the state of missouri if i missed 5 math, 6 reading, and 4 writing. Thanks.
Score is irrelevant for National Merit. it the selection index on the 228 scale (one third math, one third reading, one third writing).
Math 740 divided by 20 = 37
Reading = 34
Writing = 35
37+34+35 = 106 x 2 = 212
The “score” out of 1520 is 50% math 50% reading/writing, but is irrelevant for National Merit as 3scoutsmom says.
The selection index for NM is 33.3% math 66.7% reading+writing.
This matches how it was weighted previously. In fact, back before they added a separate writing section in 1997, they used to just double the verbal section. So, missing 1 question on verbal was twice the deduction as missing 1 question off on math. I don’t know how long before 1997 the verbal score was doubled; I know it was doubled for the tests given in 1981, because that’s when I took it.
Doubling the verbal section and the addition of the writing section have helped make the NMSF population somewhat more gender balanced. There was a lawsuit brought by FairTest in 1994 related to the gender issue. See http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1011761.pdf and http://www.fairtest.org/gender-bias-victory-wins-millions-females-national. The lawsuit led to the addition of the writing section.
Going back to a 50% math 50% reading/writing weighting for NMSF would certainly bring on a new lawsuit, probably from FairTest and maybe from others.
With the SAT going back to a 1600 score that is 50/50 weighted, I wonder what will happen there. I believe more gender info is available regarding SAT scores than PSAT scores specific to the high end of the scoring range. A lot of colleges used CR+M, but the College Board could point to CR+M+W for gender balance data.
@suzyQ7 @mathyone @Mom2aphysicsgeek and anyone else finding it easy.
Are you or your kids getting perfect scores on the PSAT practice tests? or getting one or two wrong per section or a total of one or two wrong on the entire test? Thanks.
I don’t recall how many S18 missed but his selection index score was M 38 + R 37 + W 37 = 112 x 2= 224
On the official practice test you could miss up to one in math and one in reading and still get a perfect score, this will likely change from test to test.
I think DS missed one Math, two or three Reading and one Writing.
No, my daughter didn’t say it was easy. Actually she may have said it was hard. My concern is that test taking skills of fast reading and correct pacing are about as important as actually knowing the material. That’s always been true, but I think it may be worse with the new format. When you can only afford to miss a few questions, if you don’t finish a section, that’s pretty bad. People have said that the math section is now wordier, and indeed it was the math section she was unable to finish. She’s not a very fast reader. Considering that she is very good at math (she is taking calculus now) and is pretty good at doing timed math problems quickly (she won a few Mathcounts trophies in middle school), I find it disturbing that she wasn’t able to finish this fairly basic test.
What PSAT practice tests are you referring to? I only know of the one released by the CB. I would have tried to get her to make more time to study if there were actual study materials available, but since she is a sophomore, I assume that more materials will be available in the coming year and since she was busy with other things it didn’t make sense to spend a lot of time with outdated materials.
I cannot give you a comparison of the difficulty of this test with other tests, because that official practice test is the only one she has taken. Again, time and test materials were both lacking. I just hope with a little practice she will get faster. She missed 1 and 2 on the verbal sections, 2 and the last 3 she didn’t finish on the math sections. If I understand the scoring chart correctly, it worked out to 740 in each.
My S had no problem finishing the test. He said that the Khan study material was more difficult than the official PSAT (and it should be since it’s really for the SAT). All but one or two of the questions he missed he said were careless errors due to not reading carefully. I think this supports what @Mathyone is stating. S20 who has not had the same level of math (would not expect him to!) actually said he felt the math section was more about understanding math vocabulary then actually working the problems.
I took the CollegeBoard practice test for the PSAT and missed 3 in Reading, 0 in both writing and math. How can I calculate my score both on the 1520 scale and the 38 scale?
It’s not difficult, Look here! https://collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/scoring-psat-nmsqt-practice-test-1.pdf
Reading 37
witting 38
math 38
37 + 38 + 38 = 113 x 2= 226
total score R 37 + W 38 = 75 x 10 = 750 + M 760 = 1510
awesome, thank you!
I don’t remember what she missed on the PSAT sample since she did that a while back I only know that based on her score, she is signifiantly above our state’s predicted cut off. On the CB released SAT samples, I know she missed 0 in 2 sections and that in the last section she keeps missing about the last 5 bc she is running out of time to answer bc she is tired. Pacing herself is her biggest strategy for doing well. She is prepping on her own, so those are her comments. She says she actually likes the new format better (not that she likes it. 
)bc she is finding speed is far less of an issue with this format compared to the older one and the ACT.
Fwiw, she disliked Khan’s prep and dropped it early in the process.
“in the last section she keeps missing about the last 5 bc she is running out of time to answer bc she is tired. Pacing herself is her biggest strategy for doing well.” There are posts from other good students on this site saying the same thing. I just can’t see how the college board can insist that time is not an issue for non-disabled students on these tests when even the most able students in the top percentiles are struggling, and sometimes failing, to finish.
Is there a percentile chart for the new scoring system? Without that, I don’t see how anyone can make any predictions about cut-off scores. The percentiles for the new scores can’t match the same score on the old system because the new scores are based on a different ceiling.
"Can we rely on the Index score cut-offs provided by prep scholar to be accurate? "
I don’t think they would be, unless the college board has scaled everything such that the new scores are all simply 12 less than the old scores would have been for the top scoring percentile groups. Maybe they were able to do this, but I am doubtful. The prep scholar numbers seem too low to me–according to prep scholar’s info, you could miss 11 questions in the highest cut-off states and still make NMSF. I don’t think that was possible under the old system; it was more like 6. And i don’t believe the new test is that much harder.
@3scoutsmom I agree with your son; the KhanAcademy practice questions are much harder than those on the PSAT practice test, but that of course is due to them being SAT questions.
So, my D took the practice PSAT a week or so ago and scored surprisingly high, like most of the comments I’ve seen in this thread. She just took a practice SAT (2nd of the 4 available at CB), and didn’t do nearly as well. I think part of it is that she didn’t really take it in test conditions…in our dining room with a lot of activity going on around her. But, she definitely thought it was the hardest practice she’s tried. She hated the first reading section.
Is there anyway to compare PSAT vs. SAT, since the PSAT is out of 1520 and SAT is out of 1600? Can we calculate the selection index in the same way and have it be meaningful? Should we expect SAT score to ‘seem’ lower?
Yea I took it in my basement while the young kids were running on the floor above constantly, so I couldn’t focus as much.
My D is getting a few wrong so wouldn’t say it is easy, but she does finish with time spare.
R-45-37
W-43-37
M-45-750-37.5
223?
@nw2this Has your D done any practice SATs? Are her scores comparable to the PSAT? My D got about the same on PSAT. Based on this, they’ll be bunched up at the top of the index.