Link to PSAT/NMSQT Supervisor's Manual (.PDF)

Parents Forum
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<p>I remember another parent posted the comparable link last year, so I thought I'd post this year's link to the PSAT/NMSQT Supervisor's Manual. </p>

<p><a href="http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/psat-nmsqt-supervisors-manual.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://professionals.collegeboard.com/profdownload/psat-nmsqt-supervisors-manual.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>Thanks, tokenadult. For juniors taking the PSAT this year, and for their parents, I wanted to point out two things:</p>

<p>1) The National Merit Semi-Finalist cut-offs by state can be found on the SAT & ACT Tests and Test Prep forum. The thread title is PSAT Cut-Off Scores for 2008 National Merit Semifinalists (H.S.'09). The cut-offs vary a little from year to year--sometimes not at all; usually not more than 3 points. The threshold for Commended students is normally about 200. </p>

<p>2) This one's important: After you've checked your state, if you find that there is a gap of 10 points or fewer between Commended students and Semi-Finalists, and if you're reasonably confident of being "Commended" at least, then it's very much worthwhile to give the extra effort on all of the questions on the PSAT.<br>
Why?<br>
If you are scoring near the top, a single mistake can cost you as much as 4 or 5 points on the math and writing sections. See the College Board site for the conversion of raw scores to scaled scores:
<a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/counselors/psat/2007_Understanding_Scores_No_Answer_Key.pdf%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.collegeboard.com/prod_downloads/counselors/psat/2007_Understanding_Scores_No_Answer_Key.pdf&lt;/a>
This matters most for students whose performance is somewhat "lopsided;" that is, near the top on some of the sections, but not near the top on others. If a student does about equally well on all three sections, the student will not gain as large a boost from answering one or two more questions correctly.
Students who reach the Semi-Finalist level for their states will almost certainly have more scholarship opportunities than Commended students. (Roughly 15 out of 16 Semi-Finalists are named as Finalists, nationally.)
Good luck to all involved!</p>

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<p>Thanks for the tips. Here's the link to the other thread you mentioned: </p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/554901-psat-cutoff-scores-2008-national-merit-semifinalists-h-s-09-a.html%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-act-tests-test-preparation/554901-psat-cutoff-scores-2008-national-merit-semifinalists-h-s-09-a.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

4

<p>tokenadult,
Thanks for posting this. Nice to know ahead of time how long the kids are going to get as a break between sections.</p>