<p>i got a 202 on my PSAT this year as a junior in october and got 96th percentile...it said i qualified for the competition or whatever. i've also heard that 96th percentile was the cutoff...
and also, what is all this receiving letters at the school? it says on the score report i won't actually officially know anything until september...
i'm feeling very confused.</p>
<p>I was commended and in the 98th percentile. I've already received my commendation letter and replied to the NMSQT people about which colleges I wanted them to send reference letters to (the deadline for that was yesterday, I think)..the first cutoff is nationwide, and a friend of mine who got a 206 on the PSAT didn't get commended. In September, commended people learn whether or not they are semi-finalists, based on statewide cutoff numbers.</p>
<p>Hope this helps! :)</p>
<p>I heard that you didn't notified about commended until septemeber. I had a 203 96th percentile, and I get the letter about two schools, but thats not the same as commended.</p>
<p>clarification: The cutoff for the National Merit competition is national, and this year is 202. Anyone who got the letter about advising schools of his/her scores made the initial cut. The cut-off for the next level of the competition, semi-finalists, varies from state to state. In September, students who don't make the semi-finalist cutoff in their states will be deemed commended as opposed to semi-finalists.</p>
<p>Commendations are the first round (spring) and semi-finalists are the second (September).</p>
<p>You can be in the very first round (two school letter) without making it to commended though</p>
<p>"The cutoff for the National Merit competition is national, and this year is 202. Anyone who got the letter about advising schools of his/her scores made the initial cut. The cut-off for the next level of the competition, semi-finalists, varies from state to state. In September, students who don't make the semi-finalist cutoff in their states will be deemed commended as opposed to semi-finalists."</p>
<p>i got 202. yet, i haven't gotten any letter about the initial cut yet. :/ i'm very confused.</p>
<p>The first round is commended....</p>
<p>All students making the cutoff are COMMENDED
For each state, there is a different cutoff to make SEMIFINALIST
Of those semifinalist, they are all elegible to apply to be a finalist, who are notified later</p>
<p>The commended pool is about 50,000, the semifinalist make up about 15,000 of that pool, and the finalist come from that pool</p>
<p>A finalist is also a semifinalist and commended, justmoving up the ladder</p>
<p>Don't attack me if I'm wrong...but I'm nearly positive the cutoff this year is 203.</p>
<p>I was looking this up on the national merit website. <a href="http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php%5B/url%5D">http://www.nationalmerit.org/nmsp.php</a>
The top 50,000 scorers recieve program recognition in the spring. (which is the letter about sending scores to two schools.)
Of these 50,000, around 34,000 are commended students and around 16,000 are semi-finalists, however this is not announced until september.</p>
<p>What they are really announcing in September is the semi-finalist cutoffs. The commended cutoff has already been determined....anyone who got the college plans reporting letter already made that commended cutoff (that's what the letter means). The September announcement is really about sorting out the semi-finalists from the pool of kids who all scored at or above the commended cutoff. People know the commended cutoff just by comparing who got a letter and who didn't.....I've heard that people scoring 202 didn't get one and people with 203 did....so 203 should be the cutoff.</p>
<p>on my score report, i do not have an asterisk next to my score, meaning i qualified for the competition...</p>
<p>No, that means y ou qalified to participate in the competition, meaning you live in the US and are a US citizen and all that jazz. Doesn't actually tell you if you made it or not.</p>