@DoingOurBest I’m in the same boat as your daughter: I am much better at math than I am at reading (I got lucky and found the reading passages easier this time)
@snowfairy137 I guess it is but it seems the NMS people don’t want to even their index out 
@DoingOurBest SI has been 2x verbal since the early 80’s at least, that’s how it was calculated when I was in HS.
@“Boss an” Last year a 1340 was 94%, EBRW 680 was 98%, and Math 660 was 93%. I would not trust the percentiles you see on the report. It makes no sense that your percentiles match.
I am a sophomore in PA and scored 1430/212 SI. I know I’m not eligible for NMS until next year, but I am interested in knowing of how other people in my class did. I don’t really know how to interpret my score and what it means for the future. Looking for advice. What was the cutoff for commended in PA last year?
@ollie113. Student is a sophomore. Might be the difference. But, yes, all percentiles match unlike last year when 9th grade showed the variance. Odd.
@Zach2001, your scores should come with a percentile that shows how you did versus other sophomores. You have a very good score - congratulations! The commended cut off is the same throughout the country, and last year it was 209.
@ollie113 …interesting… I did not know it has been 2x verbal for that long. I guess I was totally unaware of what it was back then since NM wasn’t even on my radar when I was in high school. My daughter is way smarter than I am 
Thank you @suzy100 . Is the test that the sophomores and juniors take the same ? I am glad to know that I have a good score.
1430/212. As a sophomore what was your User Percentile? Curious.
My daughter, a junior, got a 1400 (690 reading/writing, 710 math) or a 209, which was listed as 99th percentile. We’re in Colorado. She’s hoping that will make commended scholar.
@“Boss an” Ahh, that’s it. There’s that much improvement between Soph and Jr year. Those percentiles are for 10th graders only. Congratulations, your student has a great chance next year!
@Boss My User Percentile was 99%.
@Boss An - your daughter’s percentile is against other sophomores, not juniors, which is why it can be much lower than the scores you are seeing here and still be 98th %ile. My son had an Index of 207 last year as a sophomore and that was a 99th %ile score. This year he got a 223 SI, which is also 99th! But the 223 is 99th compared to other juniors. If he scored the 207 as a junior, I would expect that to be somewhere in the 95-96th %ile.
If your daughter does some practice and studying, she is in a great position for next year! Best of luck to her!
Kansas reporting in! DS got a 221 and we were pretty happy about that. Interestingly, he has several classmates who also scored above 220, going as high as 223 (or possibly 224, via grapevine). Last year’s state cutoff was 217.
Our high school typically has several NMFs, but I sure hope KS doesn’t jump to a 222 cutoff. Seems unlikely, but DS was surprised to hear so many scores above 220.
Now, I am not complaining because I have been here previously. DS Class of 2015 was directly on the bubble for our state AND had a semester C on his transcript…so it was a long, LONG wait from October 2013 (when he took the PSAT as a junior) to late Feb 2015 (when he finally received confirmation of NMF). He now attends one of our state universities tuition-free thanks to his NMF scholarship, so it was definitely a happy ending - but not without drama.
And speaking of drama, do all NMSF notifications still come via the high school counselor? Do all NMF notifications still come via USPS? If so, I may have a slight problem…
Ever wonder how many kids from each state make National Merit finalist and Commended?
Look at the chart on page 23
You’ll also notice that few states have ZERO commended students, that’s because they had the lowest cutoff in the country so anyone that made the cut off for Commended also made the cut off for semifinalist.
@Boss an, I read on another site (reputable guy) that the percentiles mean nothing bc they are comparing your score to last year’s kids’ scores, so essentially they tell us nothing about this year’s kids. If that’s true, I don’t know why they list them.
I got 221 in California…how likely is it to go up?
So if someone is commended, they aren’t semifinalists and vice versa?
Also, has anyone else seen collegepanda’s update about how preliminary data shows that scores are high this year?
@DLithium, I had not seen that but looked it up just now after I read your post. Specifically for those who have not seen it, he says:
“UPDATE: After taking a preliminary look at the data, scores went way up from last year, which means higher cutoffs. After seeing this, I no longer recommend judging your scores based on last year’s cutoffs. Brace yourself for much higher cutoffs – you’ve been warned! More updates to come…”
Well, I was worried before after reading and hearing about high scores but now I may have to tell myself Commended versus NMF to brace myself. Of course Commended is something to be proud of, but financially we could really use NMF.
@DLithium, interesting. Hopefully Texas doesn’t go up too much, my S is at 222 and last year’s cutoff was 220. A three point jump in one year when the cutoff was already high is hopefully unlikely. Oh well, can’t do anything but wait now.
Speaking of waiting, does anyone know why it takes so long for NMSC to announce the NMS and commended cutoffs? Obviously they have all the junior test data already. Do they have to wait for senior enrollment data to know how many graduates to expect from each state? Or do they just enjoy making students and parents sweat it out? 
What “data” did this person review?