<p>Wolverine, Can you tell me where you go the information on the necessary SAT score for National Merit? I have never seen anything officially posted. My daughter should be a semifinalist (class of 2015), as she got the same score as her sister, who was well into National Merit cutoff for our state. However, our 2nd daughter’s SAT wasn’t as high as her sister’s due to her essay. This was strange because generally she scores higher on essays, but at any rate, she only got a 1990 on her SAT, but according to the formula you laid out, it would have been a 2040. She plans on retaking the SAT either way, but she does better with lower stress, and right now she feels like its very critical that she raise her score quite a lot because her last SAT didn’t seem to substantiate her 218 PSAT score well. If we know that her score is already enough, she could relax a little and just do her best when she retakes the SAT. The 2040 score she would have received using the calculation method you showed would give her a lot more confidence, but she questions whether its accurate that it would be enough for National Merit cutoffs. </p>