<p>How do you know what each state’s cutoff is? I was totally ignorant as a sophomore. Heh.</p>
<p>I live in MA, though, so I’m guessing it’s not going to be on the low end.</p>
<p>Yeah, unfortunately you’re not.
Most of the northeastern states have very high NMS cutoffs.</p>
<p>I have a Princeton Review book that tells each state’s cutoff.
If anyone is skeptical about the authenticity of these numbers… I know they are correct – Two of my senior friends got a 217 and a 218 on the PSAT last year, and only the 218 qualified as a semi-finalist… And in my book for my state (NY) it says the cutoff is 218.</p>
<p>Let me look up the cutoff for MA for you…</p>
<p>Oh wow. It’s the highest of any of the states. 221. Tied with New Jersey, Maryland, and District of Columbia.</p>
<p>
Oh, lovely.</p>
<p>thisyearsgirl, you will make it for sure, no need to worry. Your XANGA is lovely BTW…</p>
<p>I’m not sure I even qualify for NMS. I’m not a permanent resident yet…</p>
<p>Thanks for the compliment, by the way! :)</p>
<p>how in the world can you know the cutoffs already…the collegeboard adjusts them every single year to take into account the difficulty of the test/average “smartness” of the students…are you sure you arent using the cutoffs from some other year?</p>
<p>I got antithetical as the answer to one of the CR passage questions.</p>
<p>Seaghost, for the Writing question about the Anasazi people settling and then leaving, it couldn’t have possibly been B. Isn’t it grammatically incorrect to start a question with because? I’m having difficulty remembering what I put as the answer for that question but I believe it was E. I could be wrong though. </p>
<p>Ah, I feel so stupid over getting the pretext SC wrong. I wasn’t sure what pretext was but it sounded similar to pretense. I thought they couldn’t possibly mean the same thing so as a last resort, I chose compunction. Yikes, and I’m usually good with SC.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>And oversea Americans.</p>
<p>Cryptic, it used to be a big rule of primary school English grammar that one should not start a sentence or a question with ‘because’. However, I think that’s changing.</p>
<p>I think I’ve seen a few answers to sample practice questions that had Because as the first word.</p>
<p>how in the world can you know the cutoffs already…the collegeboard adjusts them every single year to take into account the difficulty of the test/average “smartness” of the students…are you sure you arent using the cutoffs from some other year?</p>
<p>Yeah, the numbers I wrote above (221 MA, 218 NY) are the cutoffs from last year. Obviously I can’t know them for this year if the tests haven’t even been graded yet.
But I’m sure they’ll be around the same numbers.</p>
<p>You can start a sentence with “because” if it is a complete sentence.</p>
<p>Because I was sick, I didn’t go to school.</p>
<p>You cannot start a sentence with “because” if it is a fragment.</p>
<p>I didn’t go to school today. Because I was sick.</p>
<p>I’m pretty sure that’s what the rule is.</p>
<p>Yeah, I agree with ^.
Obviously it has to begin a complete sentence.</p>
<p>Anyway, does anyone remember if they picked the choice (B) that began with ‘Because’ for the past Writing question in the correct-the-underlined-portion part… About the Anasazi people abandoning their homes?
I put B over E because E was in the passive voice (I think).</p>
<p>It’s like the, “if p, then q” kind of sentence. For example, “if it rains, then we’ll go outside.” This is a perfectly legitimate sentence, even though our ears are more accustomed to hearing, “we’ll go outside if it rains.” A sentence that begins with “because”, but has a clause following it such as the “I didn’t go to school”, is thus legitimate.</p>
<p>Also, for cut-offs, you can generally make a good estimate by inference through past numbers. NY’s cut-off has been fairly consistent over the years (218 in 2004, 2003), and therefore I have no reason to believe it’d fluctuate too far from that.</p>
<p>Good.
If it were significantly higher than 218, I’d have no chance of making it.
<em>Prays for 218+</em></p>
<h1>7 in Section 1 was D (copious . . <em>forgets 2nd word</em>).</h1>
<p>I got that one wrong… I chose C (the one with onerous)</p>
<p>copious/sagacious? </p>
<p>I was hesitant about choosing it because I forgot the meaning of sagacious, but I stuck with it anyways.</p>
<p>What was the sentence with that answer about? Does anyone remember the other choices?</p>
<p>The author produced many books with discerning comments. Her work was both ______ and _________</p>
<p>Ah, great, another wrong CR…</p>
<p>There was another sentence completion about the sculpture of The Death of Cleopatra. That was “an original” right?</p>