How much do you think the scores will increase/decrease? I got a 215 this year, and my state’s cutoff last year was 216.
@LMHS73, do you mean that you think College Board is telling GCs what to do or that your school’s head counselor is making the rules? I doubt College Board is trying to dictate how or when the schools give the students their scores.
When S15 was notified that he made NMSF or NMF - I can’t remember which - we were told not to tell anyone other than family until the official college board announcement came out on a later date. I’m just GUESSING that the info that the GC’s get from college board - I assume? probably has some little blurb telling them something similar - like don’t release this info until Dec 12th. Again, just a guess on my part.
GCs said we have to wait until the 12th. So aggravating knowing the scores are out there but won’t be shared with the student.
National Merit and College Board are two different entities. College Board doesn’t put restrictions on what GC’s do with the scores and does not set the cut offs. National Merit sets the cut offs and does ask the school to only inform students and family if they made the cut until the official press release date.
@LMHS73, I think that is just your school making its own rules, not College Board. At schools around here NMSF/NMF are never told to keep their status secret until the CB announcement, and from the many posts here with students receiving their PSAT scores already I seriously doubt that all these schools are ignoring some rule or strong suggestion by College Board. Unfortunately, your school seems to have chosen to keep the scores back but if there really was a CB rule against it I can’t imagine all these schools ignoring it.
Good to know that they have the SI. Our school has three grades of kids taking PSAT and they would not release scores ahead of time due to the onslaught of kids who would flood their offices wanting their scores. I was just curious if part of the reason was that they would have to hand calculate the SIs. Doesn’t sound like that is a factor. But we are stuck waiting until Monday if history is any guide at our school.
OK - no more conjectures on my part. 
I’ll bet the main concern at a lot of schools is just number of interruptions to counselors and impact on their workday. Many of them have a lot on their plate. At DS HS, there are 3 of them serving school of 1600. 100+ students hit you one after another wanting to know there scores. You just lost a big chunk of time in a busy work week.
No Naviance here or similar site where they could post. Had never heard of Naviance till I read about it here this week. We have something called Infinite Campus, but I don’t think it could be used for this purpose.
It would be nice if the College Board just released the PSAT scores to students and GCs on the same day. Then the GCs wouldn’t be bothered/interrupted.
I agree. Or even allow counselors a day or two advance notice but a whole week seems excessive.
I really don’t get the point of the advanced notice. All they do with it is not let anyone know. Its scores on a test - that parents are paying for (in most cases).
Our Infinite Campus has an “Assessments” tab that includes MAP testing scores (https://www.nwea.org/assessments/map/) and I assume that scores like PSAT could be put there, but his are not there yet (but the counselor gave them to him).
We used to have Naviance too, but I’m not sure if the school still uses it. I don’t think I have an account for this kid yet. But we never had the graphs that are the main useful thing about it.
Hi everyone!
My PSAT compostite score was 1440 and my SI is 214.
Math: 750 (woohoo)
EBRW: 690 (lmao)
What are my chances for cutoff of 213 last year for SF?
I will either BARELY get SF or just get Commended.
This is from Compass Education Group
http://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/national-merit-semifinalist-cutoffs/:
“Class of 2018, PSAT scores are in counselor’s hands and will be available to students on December 12, 2016. We have information on the results that I’ll be posting over the next couple of days. The important point is that the class of 2017 cut-offs are the best estimates of what we will see for the class of 2018. I will give some more caveats and information as soon as possible.”
@LOUKYDAD Thanks for your help and time 
Mine were put in on naviance. 720 Reading/Writing +730 Math =1450/217
Illinois cutoff was 219 last year. Has any state ever dropped by two? Lowkey pissed.
Illinois dropped three points from 2012 to 2013. RI has had six point fluctuations. It ain’t over 'til it’s over.
First Ever Post!
My daughter got her PSAT score today:
720 Reading / Writing
740 Math
Total of 1460
SI 118
The cutoff for our state (CT) was 220 last year so it looks like she will be just shy of making semifinalist.
The tough pill to swallow is that if her english and math scores were reversed (i.e. a 740 in reading/writing and a 720 in math) then her SI would have been a 220. Total PSAT score would have been the same, but SI would be 2 points higher. It’s amazing how much the makeup of your score can affect your SI.
Oh well, she should make commended and we are proud of her!
As someone whose kid missed semi-finalist by one point two classes ago when our state jumped 2 points, it is better to find out you are Commended in December than the following September.
Congratulations on Commended!