Agree with @ThinkOn. Unless the student is looking for merit and willing to go to schools that offer the big merit money for NMF (Oklahoma, Alabama, etc), NMF not a huge deal. Fortunately, or unfortunately I’m not sure, S19 is mostly concerned about the social aspect of NMF at his school as two of his friends got 1500s and I think he doesn’t want to be left out.
I also agree that PSAT scores won’t necessarily reflect SAT scores if the student studies. Our S19 got a 1360 on the PSAT as a sophomore. Hadn’t prepped at all. Studied extensively this summer and got a 1540 on the August SAT. For him, reading was the section where he got the most improvement. Getting used to the timing and the types of questions over the summer made the difference.
Haven’t gotten his PSAT back yet. Missed the chance to see it early so we’re waiting until Dec. 11th. He’s already saying he thinks he did better on the SAT than the PSAT. I’m pretty curious to see his score but not stressed out about it. He’s applying almost exclusively to LACs and the most any of them give for NMF is $2000 per year.
For those of you who haven’t taken the SAT yet, just use your PSAT to find your weaknesses and use that info to study!
Is it required to take SAT after PSAT to qualify for NMS finalist? My S19 took SAT in June and good near perfect score and received perfect PSAT score (was able to check before CB patched the loophole). He is not planning to take SAT again.
Well, considering my son didn’t have time to study for PSAT, we are happy with a hopefully-commended 213. I’m thinking that warrants mention on Common App, esp as we are in a state requiring 223-224, and in some states (like the one we moved from), he would have made Semifinalist with 213. Kinda annoying b/c he is the same kid and maybe they need to rename it to STATE based National Merit not “National”.
No need to wait until your school provides the results. You can log onto CollegeBoard and obtain the results directly next week. If you don’t have an account, you just need to create one.
OK. Thanks! Do you know about when the hard copies come in? Will it be this week or does it usually come after the time students already have online access?
My daughter met with her counselor last week to sweet talk her into getting her score today. She said she would do it or ask the head counselor to do it if she couldn’t. Haven’t heard anything yet. Head counselor is less likely to do it if it comes to that. Actual GC is way more on board the D-Train (our nickname for when our daughter moves a teacher, coach, etc into a place where they are firmly in her corner…actual term is being ‘on board the (D’s name) train’.
My son’s counselor said that the Board makes accessing individual scores quite arduous, so she said that they avoid providing individuals scores ahead of when students can access. I understand that it would be difficult to spend a week accessing scores when I guess we can just be patient for one more week. Still, wish we could get the score now
@brentwoodmom Congrats to your NMSF son. I wish more schools did this…better yet, I wish College Board released the scores on the same date as they make them available to the schools. They have them, why not release them?
ThinkOn, Thanks! I don’t understand why they don’t release them sooner. They’ve clearly had them ready for several weeks. I have a sophomore daughter who really wants her score, but isn’t planning to ask her school since it doesn’t count for anything this year. So she’ll wait for another week.
