I think that in previous years, about half the students who took the PSAT were juniors. Most of the rest were sophomores.
Did they actually offer the PSAT 10 this year, or is that for future years? Our school had sophomores take the ACT Plan/Aspire the same day as the PSAT this year, but savvy parents could have gotten their kids to take the PSAT instead. I believe that at many high-stats schools all sophomores and juniors take the PSAT, at least in previous years.
^^my sophomore took the same test as her junior sister this year. They laughed over the same memes.
I’ve never heard of the PSAT 10 or the ACT Plan/Aspire. I didn’t realize it was unusual for sophomores and freshman to take the PSAT…
@Ynotgo I think the PSAT10 will be offered for the first time this coming spring. I think there will also be a PSAT9. They are clearly trying to compete with the ACT products. My children took the PSAT every year starting in the eighth grade, and I like the idea of doing that more.
Concerning the delay on scores, I suspect they are having terrible score distribution problems. The test was substantially easier than the original practice test, and my children said it was easier than last year. But a hard test helps to provide a fine gradient for top scorers.
It’s not enough to just calculate the top three percent and then the top one percent. The CB has to figure out how to get the top one percent in each state. If there were too few hard questions, it’s quite possible that they are having a difficult time in some states finding a way to get near one percent. For example, just to make up an example, it might be that in California a cutoff score reached by those who miss only one question might produce a cohort of one-third of one percent of test takers while the cutoff for those who miss two questions might produce a cohort of 1.5 percent. Think of all the different cutoff scores and the potential problems caused by a clumpy score distribution and it makes sense that they are trying to figure out what to do (even though NMSF aren’t reported until next fall).
I just gave the above as an example, but there is a reason these types of tests generally been made up of about 20-25 percent “hard” questions. Without these hard questions the test can’t serve its purpose.
Also, I’m not sure what Brainiac determined that making the test easier and putting more study materials on the Internet was going to reduce the NAM test score gap. My guess it has widened to the point that some of the top executives have had to go to the bathroom and vomit.
All Sophomores in my D’s school district are required to take the PSAT (optional in 9th and 11th). The schools use the PSAT, along with other factors, for class placement, i.e. AP English Lang, APUSH in 11th.
Some otherwise bright kids don’t want to be placed in AP classes so they purposely bomb the PSAT. “Christmas tree the PAST” (draw a Christmas tree with the answer bubbles) was a slogan my D heard last year. An extreme example, but the PSAT is not taken seriously by a lot of students.
I believe the PSAT is the same test for everyone, no matter what grade.
@MotherOfDragons, the PLAN test was the practice test given for the ACT to sophomores at my D’s school. Apparently the PLAN is not offered anymore, and the ACT corporation (or whatever they are called) have moved to something called Aspire. I had not heard of this, nor do I know if they are implementing it at my D’s school. Here’s a link: http://www.act.org/products/k-12-act-plan/
Just wanted to point out that NM is a specific number, not a percentile. There are approx. 16,000 semifinalists every year. If, as @Mamelot said, there will be about 3.3 million students graduating, then NMSF is the top 0.48% that year. The percentile changes as the population changes.
But, the cutoffs are done on a per state basis. So, if California, for example, expects 412,500 students to graduate, that is 1/8th of the graduating class. So, California would get 1/8th of the NMSF, or 2000. Then, the cutoff would be set to where about 8000 are at or above the cutoff. (It doesn’t matter to the calculation whether all 412,000 juniors took the PSAT in California or only half or less of them did.) The question is whether there is a cutoff that comes in anywhere close to 2000 students in California.
And, so on for the other states.
Our high school will be offing the PSAT 10 in the spring and the middle school will be offering the PSAT 8/9.
My kids take the PSAT in 8th 10th and 11th grade (our schedule not the schools). Not sure the PSAT 10 will do much good for my DS18 as he’ll take the March SAT a week after the PSAT10.
I do think the increase in 9th and 10 graders taking the PSAT is the week day administration.
@EarlVanDorn said:
I think you nailed it! I’m just not sure how much fiddling they can do with the curve. I wonder how this will effect next years test?
@suzy100 with all the changes starting this year their will 3 different PSAT tests with a different score range and for different grade levels:
PSAT 8/9
PSAT 10 (supposedly the same difficulty level as the PSAT NMSQT)
PSAT NMSQT (11th grade)
Thanks @3scoutsmom. She took it this past October as a sophomore. From what I looked up, I’m not sure the PSAT10 was available in October. I’m confused as to which one she took now. 
I’m pretty sure she took the PSAT NMSQT that what my kids took in October. I don’t think the PSAT 10 will be given until spring.
With a fixed number of finalists and continued immigration from ultra academically driven demographics, I fear only some populations will be represented in the National Merit Competition-well maybe that’s already true…like my school’s math team, debate team, robotics team, science team, newspaper writers…
@workinghard1234 You might want to look at this post from a year ago.
Yes, that data makes sense from my experience. Also, though, harder to see from just last name counting is the large representation of Indian students because there is more diversity in last names.
Here in Silicon Valley the Asians and Indians dominate all academic endeavors-many bright but not obsessively competitive kids literally stop trying to even participate.
I’m a sophomore so I took it cold (doesn’t count for anything). I also took it last year and I did fine, but I thought the new version was a lot easier so I hope that means a really good score this time… anyone know exactly when scores will come out?
@annana January 7
January 7 is going to be so anti-climactic… I will see a random selection index number that tells me nothing… I have no idea what kind of PSAT score is considered good on the 1520 scale or the selection index scale…
I’d say you are safe to call 1500 and up a good score;-) The highest Selection Index possible is 228
Here is are some sample test scores I’ve posted before but they show that the actual score is not what folks should be concerned with, it only the selection index.
reading 38 writing 38 (760) math 28 (560) Selection Index 208 total score 1320
reading 38 writing 28 (660) math 38 (760) Selection Index 208 total score 1420
reading 32 writing 34 (660) math 36 (720) Selection Index 204 total score 1380
*Numbers in ( ) are the section totals for Reading and Writing and Math respectively
If these students live in a state which has a Selection Index cut off of 208 both students with a score of 1320 and 1420 would qualify for National Merit but the student with a score of 1380 would not.
People should no longer refer to the PSAT score cut off, instead they should look at the Selection Index since different scores can have a different Selection Index.
It is possible to make a non-normal distribution normal with mathematical transformations - taking the log, the square root, square, cube, etc.,etc.
@Plotinus is right on - they look for equality among the groups with statistical tests of measurement invariance.
And there is no reason they couldn’t skim off the top 5% to send to schools for marketing, while still playing around with how they will actually report the scores.
@3scoutsmom I don’t we’ve considered this theory for NMS to easily reduce the number of finalists… They could substantially increase the SAT confirmation score. The 1960 score that has been in place, could go up in order to reduce the number of finalists. Think about - right now, 16,000 Semifinalists are chosen, with 15K becoming finalists. They could have 18,000 semifinalists instead (to deal with the too high scores and cutoffs) and increase the confirming SAT or tighten up the essay, etc… requirements.
@suzyQ7 I think you are right that it will be easy for the NM to adjust the number of NMFs but unless I’ve missed something they are still claiming they will pick 16,000 Semifinalists. Have you heard that they are increasing the number of semifinalists? They have already published the guidelines for the class of 2017
http://www.nationalmerit.org/student_guide.pdf
I think it’s going to be difficult for them to go from 16,000 to 18,000 at this point.