This 215 for Alabama is a semifinal cutoff?
crazy dad, maybe you should relax until tomorrow 
@mpk-ttk the 215 in Alabama was someone who is waiting (like all of us) for difinitive answers. Nothing confirmed yet. 
Mail was delivered. No letter for homeschool yet.
In Texas
Did anyone get a letter today? I Dont care what you made, yet! For you did, what state are you in?
No one got letters. Go enjoy your Friday night.
wow, I didnât realize that people are this anxious!
@candjsdad I called National Merit, told them the SAT breakdown, and they scored it for me over the phone (they said it was a definite 228). I also used conversion charts to convert the SAT score to a PSAT score. I think there is a lot of confusion because of the switch from Old to New SAT, and Iâm not sure why 228 is the highest when the old SAT is out of 2400.
@Harvardgirl21 I donât really have a dog in this fight but I read this thread because it is interesting to me.
I understand what you are saying about your SAT but I thought you actually had to take the PSAT to qualify specifically for the National Merit program⊠so Iâm confused? If you could just take the SAT then everyone would do that, right?
So you called the right people and said âhey I was sick for the PSAT, can you use my SAT instead?â and they said âsure?â and you have already been notified about the 209 Commended cutoff?
For sure. Goodness knows if my DS could use his SAT score instead of his PSAT score (I told him he shouldâve studied!) I wouldnât be worrying myself over his so bubbly SI.
I donât know all of the details, but in certain circumstances if NMSC is contacted right away, a student unable to take the PSAT may use an SAT score instead. But, no, a student canât just decide to use an SAT score. (IOW, I have seen this happen multiple times over the yrs.)
@Harvardgirl21 , you scored 2400 on the old SAT? Are you allowed to use super score in converting?
@candjsdad , that would always be the case, PSAT lower than SAT, as PSAT is from 228 and SAT is from 240.
Is there concordance between PSAT and old SAT?
@carachel2 I thought so too, and so I was devastated when I missed the PSAT. But I asked National Merit if there was another way and then sent me a bunch of forms to pursue âAlternate Entry,â and there were a lot of limitations and rules that I canât remember, but I had to send them my official SAT scores and I qualified. I think they keep it hush hush because I had never heard about it before either.
@Harvardgirl21âŠso interesting! Iâll bet a lot more people will start to learn about it.
Best of luck to you!
@SincererLove Iâm not going to reveal my exact SAT score but I didnât score a perfect 2400. But I scored highly, and all in one sitting, not superscored.
Because theyâve aligned the PSAT vertically with the SAT, the PSAT is going to max at less than 240. The idea is that those college-readiness benchmarks increase from PSAT 8/9 to PSAT 10 to PSAT to SAT as the student progresses in curriculum. Thatâs why your PSAT score - even if a perfect 1520, represents what you would have gotten on the SAT had you taken it that day. The SAT will always have a few toughies thrown in in there that the typical 11th grader in the fall semester canât answer correctly.
@Harvardgirl21 you may not have needed to score a perfect 1600 on the SAT to score a 228 PSAT equivalent. They must have some way of shifting back the SAT score to a PSAT score. Perhaps they used percentiles, or perhaps they did a roundabout by concording new SAT to old SAT to old PSAT to new. Whichever method they used, Iâm guessing that they were set up to answer that particular conversion question.
Congrats on a âperfectâ PSAT!
@Harvardgirl21 â you wrote " Today at 4:43 pm edited 4:44PM
Iâm a homeschooler in CA with a 228, watching the mail. Is 228 the highest score for the PSAT this year? I was sick on the PSAT date and used my SAT score to qualify instead."
Like wow - congrats of course but I have never heard of that â wonder if there is anything published officially about this limited ability to use the SAT instead of the PSAT for NM competition purposes!
And just to clarify, itâs not the case that someone can just opt to take the SAT as a substitute. You need to get approval from your school and apply to NMSC for the OK. Itâs not a done deal. My guess is that @harvardgirl2 had a real issue and her score is obviously in the âclearâ zone so no worries, folks.
Finally, they kept it âhush-hushâ because NMSC keeps EVERYTHING hush-hush! However, the protocol for alternate entry is laid out in the Official Guide which is available online.
Edit to add: @CA1543 yes, there is something published officially about this. NMSC doesnât want kids who for unforeseen reasons had to skip the one-shot deal PSAT to be hosed. Having alternate PSAT test dates might help with this issue as well.