My son was one of the reported 228s earlier (much earlier!!) in this thread, I’ve just looked at the thread again because I was curious how many 228s there were this year. The fact he got one answer wrong in CR and that the other one in this thread who reported 228 got a couple of questions wrong makes me think they weren’t any more perfect 228s than usual, because they obviously had the opportunity in those two candidates at least to score more harshly if that were the case.
My son did no prep for the new PSAT other than taking the sample test provided to get a feel for the new test and previously doing some sample tests while studying for the SAT in his sophomore year. He got a 237 in his sophomore PSAT too with no prep course so obviously just a natural test taker.
@m139pl …Congratulations!!! So do you feel like he tested about the same on both PSAT tests? Old and New? It seems to look that away to me from reading your post. What state are you in? I really think that the SI scores are not going to change that much from last year even though we are looking at a total of 228 verses 240. I think the NMSF range will just be smaller.
Per wikipedia:
Mira Loma High School is a public high school located in Sacramento, California, United States. It is the one of the most reputable and best high schools in Sacramento, consistently being ranked as the best school in the area.[2] It is a part of the San Juan Unified School District with a student body of approximately 1800 students. Mira Loma High School has been an IB World School since 1989, and is the largest International Baccalaureate program in Northern California.
@mozart6023, looking at the most recent State Summary for Texas it shows:
1,595,486 juniors took the PSAT/NMSQT (nationwide) in 2014 - graduating class of 2016.
Number of test takers by Year completing high school:
2015 - 10,077
2016 - 1,529,666
2017 - 13,401
after 2017 - 4382
not planning college - 9,240
no response - 28,720
From this data, it shows a number of juniors graduating in 3 years, 5 or more years plus a number of students not planning to go to college or didn’t aswer the question - a total of 65,820.
I believe the entire 65,820 are not eligible for NM.
@Tgirlfriend Thanks, he thought the new PSAT felt slightly harder - thought the CR was a bit “different” and not like the sample test. We’re in Massachusetts. After reading some of this thread I feel very fortunate we don’t have to worry about state cutoffs because it does seem hard to predict, I agree that it looks like they won’t drop too much but will maybe be more compressed. There’s really not much difference between kids at the top, good luck to everyone on the bubble!
@m139pl …Thank you. We are on the bubble. With a SI of 221 in Texas. Hoping of the best right now. My son said it was easy to make silly mistakes on the new PSAT. I don’t think even thought he would have a chance at NMSF since no one is our school has ever gotten that. Our GC is good but she doesn’t even know the process if anyone does make NMSF. That is scary to me. If he does make the cutoff it maybe impossible to make NMF because of the lack of knowledge. Again, Congratulation and good luck in the future.
I’d say that the scores from Sacramento that @srk2017 posted tend to support the idea that the CA cutoff will drop some but not a lot. I’m starting to come around to the idea of a 219-220 cutoff for CA.
My DS got a 224 - 3 wrong total - 2 on reading and 1 on writing. He had a 760 math and 740 r/w - the weird thing to me is if he had received a 740 math and 760 r/w, his PSAT score would be the same (1500) but his selection index would be 226 because reading/writing counts double on selection index. Its like being penalized for being strong in math. I haven’t heard of any 228’s although I’m sure they are out there somewhere…
@ca1543 That’s what my daughter’s score report says too - 48 math questions with none thrown out. But the Understanding Scores report (page 13) has raw-to-scaled conversion for only 47 questions. Unless I’m looking at an old version?
@Tgirlfriend My daughter’s GC told me we will not have any info prior to early April regarding who is advancing in the National Merit program. It’s my understanding that the principal will get this info. So, tell your son to stay on top of it…see his GC in April. I have no reason to believe he won’t. For now, just go to NMSC’s website to see what the next steps are…there are 3 or 4 I think.
@Tgirlfriend By the time you need to have paperwork filled out to advance through the process, you will be educated enough through CC to educate your school counselor!
@SLparent…I will tell him to stay in touch with the GC and Principal. Thank goodness we are good friends with the Principal. I will tell him to be on the lookout for anything on the PSAT scores. @mtrosemom…I have already been sending the GC tons of material. I know she is busy however every student should get the attention needed. Believe me I will be sending her everything I can find for the next few months. BTW…this is a great resourse.
@m139pl , congratulations on your son’s perfect PSAT! Mine got 226 and one wrong on each section (3 total). He had 216 last year. He also took ACT last year (no prep, just took one practice test) and got perfect scores. So I wonder if your son will also ace ACT? From what I read, the new SAT sounds much like ACT.
@sdhotmam Thanks, sounds like yours is a natural too My son took the two PSATs, took the SAT in sophomore and got in the 2300s and said after 6 hours stuck in a hot test center on a Saturday morning that he wasn’t going to do any more tests! So no SAT superscoring or ACT for him…
@Lea111 – you are right - the Understanding your Scores refers to Math score 47 right = 38 as the top possibility for Oct 14 - weird. Of course 48 is also a 38.
Maybe you can start a club at your school called "GC’s educated by parents club
It would be a very small small club at our school. We have a hard time getting parents to help most activities unless it is football. The funny thing is we are horrible at football. Lol
We had a group of kids go to State for UIL Math and no one showed up to send them off however if the basketball or football team wins a game people go crazy. So sad!!
@Tgirlfriend My oldest son got NM a couple of years ago. The principal didn’t know what it meant, really. I don’t think the school had had NMSF for a few years and he was new at the job. I had to tell him some of the steps. He was late turning in some things. The NM office was understanding ( I called them). But, yeah, you’ll have to really keep the principal and GC on track. Our GC told me she couldn’t send anything in until the principal did his part first. I think he had some email with a code or something that he needed to activate ( but hadn’t noticed the email).
My son took the two PSATs, took the SAT in sophomore and got in the 2300s and said after 6 hours stuck in a hot test center on a Saturday morning that he wasn’t going to do any more tests! So no SAT superscoring or ACT for him…