The
PSAT
is a standardized test given primarily to high
school students in eleventh grade. The test score
is used
for the National Merit Scholarship competition. For
this reason, it is also called the National Merit
Scholarship Qualifying Test (NMSQT). Many students
will also take the exam in tenth grade. However, the
tenth grade results are not used for the National Merit
Scholarship competition. The PSAT is given
once a year, in mid-October, but different school
districts may have different schedules.
Ideally, the PSAT
results can
give an indication of how well a student will do on the SAT
Reasoning Test. It is a shorter version of the SAT
Reasoning Test and contains Reading, Math, and Writing
sections.
All
questions are multiple-choice and the test
is
two hours and ten minutes long.
Every year, about 16,000 high school juniors will qualify
as
National Merit Semifinalists. These students, if
they maintain good grades, perform well on
their SAT tests, and obtain an good recommendation
letter from their
high school principal, have the chance to
become National Merit Finalists during their
senior year. Many Semifinalists and Finalists receive offers from
colleges, which often include full or near-full
scholarships, and Finalists also receive a $2500
National Merit Scholarship.
|
National Merit Semifinalist
Score Reference Table |
|
What score on
the
PSAT can qualify you as a National Merit
Semifinalist? Good
question! Actually, there is not an absolute
qualifying score, but the table below can be used as
a reference:
|
AL |
AK |
AZ |
AR |
CA |
CO |
209 |
212 |
210 |
202 |
216 |
213 |
CT |
DC |
DE |
FL |
GA |
HI |
220 |
221 |
217 |
214 |
215 |
215 |
ID |
IL |
IN |
IA |
KS |
KY |
206 |
214 |
210 |
210 |
214 |
219 |
LA |
ME |
MD |
MA |
MI |
MN |
208 |
214 |
221 |
221 |
210 |
213 |
MS |
MO |
MT |
NE |
NV |
NH |
202 |
211 |
207 |
204 |
207 |
214 |
NJ |
NM |
NY |
NC |
ND |
OH |
221 |
206 |
218 |
215 |
206 |
211 |
OK |
OR |
PA |
RI |
SC |
SD |
207 |
215 |
215 |
215 |
211 |
205 |
TN |
TX |
UT |
VT |
VA |
WA |
216 |
215 |
202 |
213 |
220 |
214 |
WV |
WI |
WY |
|
|
|
202 |
210 |
200 |
|
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Some students
choose not to take the PSAT
test, but this prevents them from becoming
Semifinalists. We
suggest that each student take a practice PSAT test
and compare their score with
the reference table above. If the student's
practice PSAT
test score is less than 15 points below the
qualifying score for the student's residence
state, it's
worth it to seriously practice and prepare for
the
PSAT. Also, PSAT preparation can help
the student on his or her SAT test.
Two Sections-Critical Reading:
Each section is 25 minutes long and the two
sections contain a total of 13 Sentence
Completion multiple-choice questions and 35
Reading Comprehension multiple-choice questions.
Two Sections-Math:
Each section is 25 minutes long and the two
sections contain a total of 28 regular multiple-choice
questions and 10 Student-produced response (Grid-in) questions.
One
Section-Writing:
This section is 30 minutes long and includes a
total of 14
Identifying Sentence Errors multiple-choice
questions, 20 Improving
Sentences multiple-choice questions, and 5 Improving Paragraphs
multiple-choice questions.
Students register for the PSAT at the high school which
they
attend, and the test is usually held at their high
school. Please check with your school
guidance counselor for registration information.
October of each year
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