<p>If you got a high score which qualified you for either a commended scholar or national merit, please post your score here. How can I ace the PSAT. What's the highest score.</p>
<p>Highest score = 240.</p>
<p>i got a 209 (80 in math)
BEARly made commended
Its more geared toward the english people. typically mational merit is like 225 so if you get 75 on each section you are in good shape.</p>
<p>You got that right that's it geared towards english people, oh well. Hurray for math nonetheless.</p>
<p>You can learn about the test here: <a href="http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/psat/about.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/psat/about.html</a></p>
<p>Qualifying scores are determined by state. Here's an old thread about past scores by state. They generally don't change by much, usually 1 or 2 points up or down. <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=177542%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=177542</a></p>
<p>Also, I believe getting commended, semifinalist, etc. is based on state, so if you live CA, MA, NJ, NY or some other really competitive state you're going to have to work really hard.</p>
<p>actually im pretty sure CA isnt one of the higher-cutoff states. remember, california is a huge state. last year its cutoff was 216, the same as north carolina</p>
<p>Actually, the state scores move a fair amount. For the 2006 Program (people entering college now, who graduated from high school last spring, and who took the PSATs in 2004), one state went up 5 points (VT), four went up 4 points, two went up 3 points, and four went up 2 points. For the 2007 Program (people about to start their senior year in high school who took the PSATs in 2005), the Commended cutoff was apparently up 1 point (to 203) from the 2006 Program, which may mean the state cutoffs have also gone up.</p>
<p>Yesterday, NMSC mailed Semifinalist notifications to school principals. For details on the schedule, see the first blue link at this post:
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=2851954#post2851954%5B/url%5D">http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?p=2851954#post2851954</a> </p>
<p>Other blue links show the cutoffs for the 2006, 2005, 2004, and 2001 programs.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>I got a 236, better than I'll ever do on the SAT but that's because of the essay and the fact that the PSAT is just not at all like the SAT in length or difficulty. But I thought Semifinalist or Finalist standings, one of those, also involved an essay and an application. I'm pretty sure about that, but maybe someone else knows about it better.</p>
<p>Also, I heard you have to prove your capability of obtaining your PSAT score on your SAT's. How good of a score do you have to get? I think that a score of 215 is generally a qualifier, and I beat that on my SAT's, I got a 2260. But is that good enough to "prove" my score on the PSAT for Finalist standings? I appreciate anybody with experience or who just knows.</p>
<p>Edit: I was looking at the schedule and it says something about commended students announced after semifinalists-didn't students get commended already? In my school kids got letters to be recommended to two colleges, that seemed like "commendation" to me.</p>
<p>i think the essay is for the finalist standing; you don't need it for the semifinalist status.
2260 should be enough (hopefully) to prove ur score. I'm kinda in the same boat, my psat 232 went down to a 2290 on sat b/c i screwed up writing.
the letters we got last year only stated that we were at least commended level. it didn't actually distinguish between commended students and semifinalists, so they get one too.</p>
<p>chris07: Getting from Semifinalist to Finalist does involve an essay, validation of your PSAT score with an SAT, recommendation of your school, and no bad grades, but the NMSC guides say 95% of Semifinalists make it. High schools are ecstatic to have Finalists, so they rarely stand in the way unless you're a really big discipline problem. The son of a friend had an incredible PSAT score and didn't make it from S to F, but he almost flunked out of high school, had a smart mouth, and didn't take the application seriously. The 5% who don't make it to F are the ones who don't validate their score with an SAT, have bad grades, don't get recommended by their high schools, don't have American citizenship (or can't demonstrate that they're on their way to getting it), or who don't apply for it.</p>
<p>As for the SATs required to validate, I think they're just looking for a way to make sure you didn't have someone sit in for you when you took the PSATs, so as long as you're roughly in the same neighborhood, you should be OK. With a 2260 SAT, 110 points "over" the 2150 SAT indicated by your 215 PSAT, you should be more than fine.</p>
<p>Re the calendar, no one has officially been Commended or made Semifinalist yet, though since the S notifications were mailed to school principals yesterday, the first Semifinalists may start finding out today. It will stretch out for weeks, depending on how their schools handle communicating it to them. The notification last spring was high scorer, so presumably if you got one of those you're either Commended or a Semifinalist, but you don't yet know which.</p>
<p>Thanks for answering my questions. But my PSAT was 236, not 215. I was saying that my school counselor told us that 215 was the avergae qualifying score and would it be okay if my SAT wasn't as good as my PSAT but was above that. Oh well it's really nothing to worry about now, and anyway i got an 800 on my Math SAT and PSAT, that should probably prove something to them. The real problem was with my writing because of the essay, maybe they have a policy fo rhtat.</p>