Coughing, oh why must you complicate things?

Pre-College Topics High School Life
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<p>So essentially, someone coughed for a few minutes during my PSAT a month ago (the coughing was quite annoying, but brief). Apparently, someone complained about it, and my guidance/PSAT counselor has given the people in my room the option of using an SAT score in place of the PSAT score in the National Merit Scholar process.</p>

<p>I have to give him and answer of which one I want to go with by tomorrow. And FYI, I need to make the NJ cutoff - so roughly a 223+. </p>

<p>PSAT pros:

  • I think I did pretty well (perhaps above the 223)
  • It’s already done with
    Cons:
  • Grading is harsher overall - a few mistakes I haven’t realized yet could drop me below the cutoff
  • I think I made a bubbling mistake on my personal info…heh.
  • The coughing may have impacted me, and it happened to be during the only writing section of the PSAT (I may have messed up/mis-bubbled during the coughing fit as I cursed the cougher in my head)</p>

<p>SAT pros:

  • I’m taking December SAT anyway, so I will be very well prepared (perhaps moreso than when I took the PSAT)
  • SAT scores are generally higher and I will have had more time to prepare
    Cons:
  • This will be my first official SAT (although I have taken many practice tests and PSAT procedure is very similar)</p>

<p>Please give me your opinions, and I’d really like to hear how this process works if anyone else has gone through this before. He didn’t really tell me how/when I would be notified if my SAT score qualified me for NMS if I chose to use it.</p>

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<p>I’m no expert, but what did you score on your practice sats? That should be the indicator for which one you should choose.</p>

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<p>Well I just realized this thread is two days old. What did you choose?</p>

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<p>I suppose I may as well answer this for future people (may be a good idea to move this somewhere else tho)</p>

<p>I chose to take the SAT instead and it worked out much better (praise the NMS gods). The process was very seamless, I still got my PSAT result afterward and all I had to do was fill out a small form and send my SAT score report to NMS. I even got to choose which score (which month) to send in for it - so I got to choose AFTER knowing my score ;)</p>