Well, people are only going to talk about people that did better than them… Why would I discuss the 50 kids I did better than if 5 people did better than me… get it? @GrandBudapest
@2blessed2b I only think that the cut off will be higher because of how easier this test has been compared to the old version. There is no penalty for wrong answers. The curve seemed extremely lenient, and many people at my school did extremely well (around 210-225 SI) (which is rare since we barely get 1 semifinalists and 1 commended a year (no semifinalist last year and 1 commended)). I think that represented that other people across the states did well, so the cutoff score will inevitably be higher. Hopefully I’m wrong.
@2blessed2b You’re right. The cutoff this year will be different and lower. Last years scale was 0-240, this year 0-228.
But it doesn’t matter if the majority of people did worse… if the top 10% does better, then to become a NMSF (top 1%) it WILL be more competitive.
Top .5%
Got a 206 SI, any chance for National Merit Semifinalist in VA ???
Score: 1400
-Math: 740
-Writing + Reading: 660
I’m in the same situation as @heirofslytherine with my school. Try and forget about the numbers (210, 220, etc) and focus on how hard it is to get national merit. It will be the same relative difficulty this year as last year. If you were no where near national merit last year but achieved a 210 this year, you probably won’t get it this year either despite the fact that your index seems pretty high. Unless of course, the new test suited you much better (like it did for me).
Don’t believe anyone who knows what the cutoff for NMSF is this year… it has not been announced. The facts are that slightly more than 1% of test takers will be NMSF in a typical year. This will be normalized for each state so that the distribution is fair. Some states will need higher than 99.0 percentile and some lower.
In California, I can tell for sure that top 1% score rage will go up because a lot of my friends did very well compare to the class of 2016 group.
One benefit of living in a flyover state is the lower (well, average, but certainly not NJ-high) NM cutoff 
Also, not all “99th percentiles” are equal, due to the state quotas. A 99th percentile in Mississippi will probably make it, while percentile cutoffs in more competitive states are up in the air.
@GrandBudapest You have a great point there. And to make it more extreme: Only the top 1% (actually less than that) of the population’s score matter for determining the cutoff. So if there is an odd distribution of scores, it won’t benefit the people who want to be NMSF. Since we heard that so many people did well from this thread, I think that the top 1% score will be extremely high.
yeah VA is pretty competitive!
@purplepuffin Virginia typically has higher scores than other states. I think 1400 will be close to NMSF but I worry that VA will have little higher cutoff than 99.0% nationally
Does anyone happen to know of any special recognition/award given to someone with a full PSAT score? besides national merit of course. I know there is an award for full SAT and ACT, at least in my state, so i was wondering.
So far, 1380 was the lowest score posted as 99th percentile. This could by 98.5%… post your score, SI, and percentile to help compare.
VA, 1400, 206, 99th
@mkumar17 my daughter is in TN, made a 1480 with a 222 SI. Just for TN info comparison. She and her friends have kept quiet about their scores so I don’t have any other TN news to report.
1400, 206, 99th Percentile
1480, 221, 99th Percentile
I’m gonna jump in and say that the cut off for Texas was 211. I just barely cut it with a 1380. 99% in R&W and 96% in math.
1480, 222, 99th