National Merit Finalist?

Question

I don't know if I am a Semifinalist yet, but I did get a 221 on the PSAT last October, so I think my chances are pretty good for that (I'm from New York.) But if I want to continue to be a Finalist, the College Board says that I need to "prove" my PSAT score via a similar grade on the real SAT. So far I've taken that once and got a 2080. I'm going to take it again, but is that good enough to meet the Finalist criteria? My school grades are really high (96's -100's in AP and honors classes), but is a 2080 enough?

Answer 1

i don't know what a 2080 is out of 2400,

but i think that i remember if you get a 15OO or above out of 1600 (the old ones)

that qualifies you as a finalist

just make a proportion and figure out if it's good enough

Answer 2

Yeah, a 2080 is close enough.  I would recommend that you retake it (just for the sake of college admissions because you're evidently capable of more than a 2080 if you got a 221 on the PSAT), but for the NMS stuff, a 2080 is fine.  If you had gotten a 1080, it'd be a different story.  The idea is that they want to make sure that your PSAT score wasn't a total fluke or that you weren't cheating or something along those lines.  Most semifinalists end up being finalists (a lot of people who get cut are simply people who didn't turn in their applications to be finalists).  So to become a finalist, you're probably in the clear.  The finalist to scholar cut is the one that's more difficult, and for that cut, it's a little more important that your SAT score is high, but my SAT score was lower than my PSAT score (by less than yours, though), and it didn't seem to hurt me.  Congrats on your 221!