<p>So, do colleges care at all what you got on the PSAT? I really hope they don't. Because when I took it I only got a 196. </p>
<p>On the real SAT though, which I took just this past Saturday, I feel really confident that I might be able to break a 2200 depending on the curve. </p>
<p>So hopefully my SAT score will be good but I don't want a bad PSAT getting in the way. </p>
<p>Any thoughts?</p>
<p>The only thing that matter is whether or not you get national merit.</p>
<p>There is no difference between getting a 196 or a 215 when the cut-off is 217.</p>
<p>It's all or nothing, you either make national merit or you don't.</p>
<p>So don't worry lol</p>
<p>Actually 215 would get you commended while 196 wouldn't.
But it's true that PSAT scores really don't matter except for the Nat'l Merit thing and (unless your school puts them on your transcript or something), colleges never see what you get if you don't want them to.</p>
<p>^^ not if the cut-off was 217, as was the hypothesis of the previous post...</p>
<p>^^The cut-off would be for National Merit Semifinalist, not commended (cutoff is around 200, I believe). They care mostly about NMSemi, I don't know whether they care if you are commended or not. That is, would they bat an eye if they saw that the candidate was neither a Semifinalist nor commended (i.e., scored below 200)? Is there any significant distinction between commended and nothing?</p>