Someone Please Tell Me That The Il Cutoff Will Drop A Point!

Test Preparation
1

<p>Sorry, this thread has basically no point. It's pretty rare for the state cutoffs to drop, right? I got a 215, and last year's IL cutoff was 216, though the years before that were 213 and 214, respectively. I read somewhere that someone's GC told them that last year's 216 was freakishly high and that it might go down. O WHY DO THEY MAKE US WAIT UNTIL SEPTEMBER?</p>

2

<p>(This may be incorrect) but from what I have read and what I have heard, the commended cutoff and the semi-finalist cutoff for each state has never went down from one year to the next....although some cutoffs remain the same for years and years, none ever drop...... this kind of makes sense considering each year, more students are prepared and knowledgeable about the test (Collegeboard advertisements, prep boks, and booklets for the PSAT are everywhere these days), which results in higher and higher scores every year by students...... sorry but it does not look that good.......HOWEVER, I may be totally wrong - this is just my opinion and what I have read....
In any case, at least you got commended (an honor many wish they had)..although it does suck to miss SF by one point.....
GL - Hopefully you will get SF !</p>

3

<p>Yea I'm in a similar boat...I missed MA by 3 points. I know it would be wildly improbable for such a drop to happen, but I would be very happy if it did.</p>

4

<p>Thanks for the advice. I KNOW it has dropped before in some states, but that it is rare. Anyways, I'm trying to look at it in a positive light, because if missing semi-finalist means that I won't be getting as much merit money at my safeties, then it will force me/make it easier for me to go to the really good Ivy/top 20 caliber schools where NM status means nothing.</p>

5

<p>Last year, when the Semifinalist cutoffs were announced at this time, 27 states went up and 7 went down, so it's not unheard of. The decreasers are usually not really big states. See thread <a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=74297%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=74297&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br>
for more details. Post #202 there has some statistics on it, and links to historical Semifinalist cutoffs and the official NMSC schedule.</p>

<p>The bad news this year is that the national Commended cutoff is up a point to 203, which may mean the state Semifinalist cutoffs will be up as well. But not long to wait -- NMSC mailed Semifinalist notifications to school principals last Monday...</p>