We live in Ny and my son got a 1480 on the PSATs. Based on last year’s cutoff he should qualify as a semi finalist. We just got a report back from his School and it looks like the national average on the PSATs was significantly higher than last year’s national average. Was the test much easier this year? I am wondering if the qualifying selection index is going to be a lot higher this year. Any thoughts?
@nymom9990 First off you need to be concerned with the SI (selection index) students may have the same score but different SI numbers, National Merit cut off is based on the SI for your state. Last year NY’s cut off was 219. CompassPrep is predicting a range of 217-221 for the class of 2018 in NY. They were pretty accurate last year when everything was a complete unknown with the new test so I trust their predictions. Also keep in mind that now the the scores are compressed with the new 228 scale we’re less likely to large shifts in the cut offs.
Ok thanks. His SI is 222 so hopefully that will be good enough this year.
SI 222 in NY will qualify as a semifinalist. You have nothing to worry about. My prediction for NY cutoff is either 220 or 219. This year’s PSAT was a little easier than last year’s as far as scores are concerned, and the national average is significantly higher. Despite the significant difference in the average, there is much smaller difference in the higher end where the semifinalist cutoffs come from.