<p>My counselor told me that I should be receiving my PSAT score either today or tomorrow(most likely today). I am African-American and I was wondering that, should I receive National Achievement Commended or National Merit Commended, would I get a letter along with my PSAT scores in the same package? Would they come separately? And if I do receive National Achievement Commended, does that mean that I have the chance to become a semi-finalist or is that as far as I will get?</p>
<p>Weeelll, it would depend on if you were a junior or sophomore. You wouldn’t qualify for NMS as a 10th grader and I believe you have to get in the 99% to qualify for NMS and be notified later on, but you wouldn’t get a letter with your scores (or, at least, no one in my school did).
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<p>You won’t find out till about September 2012 if you get any type of recognition (if you are currently a junior). Cutoffs for national merit vary by state and range from about 205 to 223. In the national merit forum under financial aid there will be threads that list the cutoffs by state. </p>
<p>National merit commended is a single national cutoff. I think it was 202 this year. </p>
<p>National achievement is a cutoff by region. You probably won’t find good data on the cutoffs. However, people have posted that they got national achievement semifinalist with high 190’s, but it will vary from year to year and by region.</p>
<p>If you receive commended in either national merit or achievement you do not go any farther in the competition.</p>