What is my national merit selection index for the new PSAT with these scores? I tried to calculate myself, but I couldn’t convert my math score to a scale of 38. The PSAT scoring only gives it out of 760 for math.
Practice PSAT
Reading: 37, Writing: 36, Math: 710/760
Would I make national merit in california?
Gone is the old PSAT score range of 60 to 240. The new PSAT will be scored on a scale from 320 to 1520.
Math will actually count for one half of this composite score, and the Reading and Writing (which will be called Writing and Language) sections will count for the other half together.You’ll get subscores for Math, Reading, and Writing and Language between 8 and 38. Then Reading and Writing will be considered together, and Math will make up for the other half.
To get your Math scaled score, you simply multiply your section score by 20. A score of 30 on math, for instance, would convert to a scaled score of 600 (30 x 20 = 600).
To get your Reading and Writing score, which again are combined, you add each section score and multiply by 10. Let’s say you get a 32 on Reading and a 35 on Writing. Your scaled score would come out to 670 (e.g., (32 + 35) * 10 = 670).
Here’s another example, where the student scored a 28 on Reading, 32 on Writing, and 34 on Math.
Test Test Score Section Score Total Score
Reading 28
(28 + 32) * 10 = 600 600 + 680 = 1280
Writing and Language 32
Math 34 34 * 20 = 680
For each section, you could get a minimum scaled score of 160 and a maximum of 760.
With the scores you mentioned above, your selection index would be 217. Not sure if this is enough to make national merit, but you’ve definitely got a shot. I live in California too, btw.
@IvyCupcake78 OP is asking about selection index for NMS, not total score. The selection index (according to the College Board) is still going to be 1/3 Reading, 1/3, Writing, and 1/3 Math. So what you said about math being 50% for the total score is TRUE, its not the case for NMS qualification (Math is only 33.3%).
@RiceEater108 No one will know the cutoffs until a year from now. They have totally changed the ranges, so you can estimate based on % on previous tests, but like @IvyCupcake78 said, the scale is different, the test is different, so very hard to compare from other years.
Even though students are not notified until September, qualifying numbers should be released in April. SI calculated by doubling the verbal (reading and writing) and adding the math. So each section counts one third.
@cornell65 Do the qualifying numbers released in April also include international/out-of-states schools?
@cornell65 do you mean commended qualifying score or semifinalist qualifying score?
PSAT score and NMSF Selection Index are computed using different formulas. Therefore, there is not a one-to-one correspondence between the 2 numbers. The PSAT score calculation gives twice as much weighting to the M subscore:
PSAT = 10 * ((2*M) + V + CR)
NM S.I. = 2 * (M + V + CR)
I have crunched the different combinations of subscores and determined that these are the possible ranges of the numbers:
PSAT | NMSF Selection Index range
1200 | 176 - 184
1210 | 178 - 186
1220 | 178 - 188
1230 | 180 - 190
1240 | 180 - 192
1250 | 182 - 194
1260 | 182 - 196
1270 | 184 - 198
1280 | 184 - 200
1290 | 186 - 202
1300 | 186 - 204
1310 | 188 - 206
1320 | 188 - 208
1330 | 190 - 208
1340 | 192 - 210
1350 | 194 - 210
1360 | 196 - 212
1370 | 198 - 212
1380 | 200 - 214
1390 | 202 - 214
1400 | 204 - 216
1410 | 206 - 216
1420 | 208 - 218
1430 | 210 - 218
1440 | 212 - 220
1450 | 214 - 220
1460 | 216 - 222
1470 | 218 - 222
1480 | 220 - 224
1490 | 222 - 224
1500 | 224 - 226
1510 | 226
1520 | 228
S.I. | PSAT score range
190 | 1230 - 1330
192 | 1240 - 1340
194 | 1250 - 1350
196 | 1260 - 1360
198 | 1270 - 1370
200 | 1280 - 1380
202 | 1290 - 1390
204 | 1300 - 1400
206 | 1310 - 1410
208 | 1320 - 1420
210 | 1340 - 1430
212 | 1360 - 1440
214 | 1380 - 1450
216 | 1400 - 1460
218 | 1420 - 1470
220 | 1440 - 1480
222 | 1460 - 1490
224 | 1480 - 1500
226 | 1500 - 1510
228 | 1520
FYI, My calculations in post#8 plotted in a table alongside the College Board’s PRELIM concordance table:
http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/discussion/comment/19169349/#Comment_19169349