on the writing on the psat is it going to be 4 points lower than usual

Test Preparation
1

<p>If they put the writing 4 points lower than usual is the national merit score 4 points lower?</p>

2

<p>a) why would they make the writing 4 points lower?
b) i doubt it, b/c each cutoff varies by state and i think is loosely based on a curve/type thingy</p>

3

<p>well they said that they have changed the scale and that writing will be 3 to 4 points lower</p>

4

<p>The cutoff score depends on the what the top 16,000 scorers get. It can vary from year to year. Last year qualifying scores dropped a few points. If you look at the last page of this thread you can see the cutoffs. The minus shows the point drop from the previous year.
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=385453&page=33%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=385453&page=33&lt;/a>
I think that the writing scale changed from 2005 to 2006 (and this is reflected in the lower qualifying scores seen above.) Has College Board said that they will again change the scale for the 2007? That seems off to me.</p>

5

<p>"The cutoff score depends on the what the top 16,000 scorers get."</p>

<p>Not necessarily.. I think it would be more accurate to say that the top 320 scores in each state get in.</p>

<p>If the cutoff was purely based on the top 16,000 scores, then most of the NMFs would be in states like Mass, FL, NY, etc. States like Ala, Ark wouldn't get any. I doubt it's an even method like 320 per state, but something kind of similar.</p>

6

<p>For commended, the cut-off is determined by the top 50,000 nation-wide.</p>

<p>The curve was lowered four points last year and the cut-off went down four points last year (three, actually, I believe). It won't happen again this year, it was a one-time deal.</p>

7

<p>Right, the variation between states is pretty significant. And I'm sure that dtran09 is correct that there's some formula that they use to determine apportion by state. My point was that NM doesn't set a number goal and award semifinalist status to everyone who meets it. Test taker scores (by state) determine the number. The commended cutoff is nationwide.</p>

8

<p>couldn't have said it better myself, MD_Mom.</p>

9

<p>Actually, it's in proportion to the number of PSATs taken in a particular state.</p>

<p>I know that Florida gets more than 700, New York gets more NM semi-finalists because there are more test takers.</p>

<p>It's roughly the 99th percentile of their respective states.</p>