YMMV- Find Out if You Made NMSF

PSAT321
Sun, 21 Apr 2013 12:56:33 +0000

I have found out a way to get a general idea of whether you made NMSF or not. In many cases, it is indeterminate, but in a couple particular cases, this test will tell you almost certainly that you are not a National Merit Semi-Finalist or that you are a National Merit Semi-Finalist.

So it is known that there are 16,000 National Merit Semifinalists and just shy of 1.6 million JUNIORS that take the PSAT every year. This works out nicely so that the 99th percentile becomes National Merit Semifinalists. This does not take into account the state you live in though. That is where this test comes in.

1.) Take out your PSAT Score Report Plus and look at your percentile compared with college-bound juniors. (Based off of composite score, not subject scores) Take record of it.

2.) You should have recently received an email from College Board titled “Practice for the upcoming SAT with your PSAT/NMSQT results”. Click on the link which says “Prep with My College Quickstart and improve your SAT score!” Now log in.

3.) Now examine your state percentiles for each subject and the national percentile for each subject. Take record of them.

If your score was in the 99th percentile nationally (as seen on your score report), and your state percentile is greater than the national percentile for each subject, it is very probable that you made NMSF.

If you scored below the 99th percentile nationally (as seen on your score report), and your state percentile is less than the national percentile for each subject, it is very probable that you DID NOT make NMSF.

All other results are inconclusive, but can still be used for rough estimates. For example, if your score was in the 99th percentile nationally (as seen on your score report), and your state performed worse than the nation in 2 subjects, it is quite likely that you made NMSF.

Note: At the end of the day, these are all estimates though. There are certain assumptions made about each state, one being that all states have similar standards of deviation and their scores are similarly spanned out. However, using this estimate along with past cut-offs can provided a very accurate estimate of your standings.