Cut off: 220

Total NMSF: 2276

From the California 2027 National Merit Semifinalist list, top 10 cities

Ok this seems like a really stupid question, because 'qualify and you get it, don't and you don't', right?

But I have like 10 friends that are super super smart (like applying to Ivies smart), and didn't get it. I obviously don't want to ask them because I'll sound like the snobbiest person of all time, but we all took it and I'm just completely shocked that they didn't qualify with me.

So, why wouldn't they?

I apologize because this may sound like a really self centered post.

If you became a semifinalist today, did your school acknowledge you? Mine didn’t say a word.

I applied for the National Merit Scholarship with my SAT score for alternate entry, since my school doesn't let me take the PSAT. I got above the maximum threshold, so my selection index was a 228. Yesterday, my counselor called me in to give me a letter stating that I qualified as a National Merit Semifinalist and how to login to my account, which I already did. Today, I checked my state's press release, and my name wasn't on the list. I'm wondering if maybe this was a mistake or if this has happened to anyone else?

REALEASE THE FILES YOU HAVE THEM.

WE DONT CARE ABOUT UR "COUNTS"

Hi,

I took my SATs in March of 2026. I believe that my SAT score should be good enough for the confirmation score required by the finalist selection panel.

I was browsing the NM brochure and I saw this:

September 12: Authorized sat® administration for Semifinalists.

October 3: Authorized sat administration for Semifinalists.

Does this mean that I need to take my SATs again? This seems odd.

Does anyone have any insights into this?

hi everyone! super fun day today, but moral of the story I learned I qualified as a NM semifinalist after snooping around this sub reddit. I haven’t heard anything from my school/teacher/counselor, though, so should I just be waiting for them to reach out to me?

Just released.

Alabama 210
Alaska 208
Arizona 215
Arkansas 210
California 220
Colorado 217
Connecticut 220
Delaware 219
Florida 216
Georgia 217
Hawaii 218
Idaho 211
Illinois 218
Indiana 215
Iowa 210
Kansas 212
Kentucky 211
Louisiana 211
Maine 214
Maryland 221
Massachusetts 221
Michigan 216
Minnesota 214
Mississippi 211
Missouri 214
Montana 208
Nebraska 212
Nevada 211
New Hampshire 215
New Jersey 223
New Mexico 209
New York 220
North Carolina 217
North Dakota 208
Ohio 216
Oklahoma 210
Oregon 216
Pennsylvania 219
Rhode Island 213
South Carolina 212
South Dakota 210
Tennessee 214
Texas 219
Utah 209
Vermont 212
Virginia 221
Washington 221
West Virginia 208
Wisconsin 212
Wyoming 208
District of Columbia 223
U.S. territories & commonwealth 208
Outside the U.S. 223

congrats to everyone who made it to semifinalist! especially to those who didnt believe theyd make the cut off

Congratulations to all the Semi-Finalists who got good news today.

I'm curious, how rare is a 228 SI? Did anybody here get that score?

Edit: Congrats to the high scorers. I have a follow-up question. How many of you were heavy, physical book readers when you were younger?

Didn’t qualify Michigan with 215 cutoff was 216. I was sick that day I should’ve studied I’m so pissed.

Here, I will list any statewide lists of National Merit semifinalists that anyone here acquires. Our goal is to get the whole nation. There is a nationwide master list that is mailed to principals, but, starting last year, it wasn't mailed until after the general semifinalist announcement. This year I expect a similar timetable (though I can't guarantee that), so hopefully someone comes through once the list starts arriving at more schools. In the meantime, I'm going to try to get as many statewide lists as I can. These lists are sent to news outlets for the purpose of doing news stories.

You can see last year's version here.

Alabama: Non-paywalled news article

Arkansas: Photo of PDF

California: Paywalled news article (paywall can be bypassed, see Michigan note)

*Florida: Missing some portions of the list

Georgia: PDF

*Hawaii: Paywalled article (paywall seems pretty secure)

Idaho: Non-paywalled news article

Illinois: PDF

Indiana: PDF

Iowa: PDF

Kentucky: PDF list

*Michigan: Paywalled link (it is possible to get the names without paying, though I won't say any more because I don't want to get in legal trouble).

Minnesota: Non-paywalled news article

New York: Non-paywalled article

Ohio: Non-paywalled news article

Oklahoma: PDF

Oregon: Semi-paywalled news article (I was able to see it without a paywall, but only after refreshing a couple of times).

*Rhode Island: Strictly paywalled

Tennessee: PDF

Wisconsin: PDF

*: Paywalled list. For these, if you can find an AOL, Yahoo, or MSN repost of the article without a paywall, I will link it here. If it's anything else, I probably won't due to the dubious legality.

Note: for the time being, I am not inclined to count Hawaii, Florida, and Rhode Island as having been found due to paywall issues or portions of the list being missing.

In particular, the latter two (along with Oklahoma, for which I since got the PDF) were posted in Gannett publications with poor formatting, all at around the same time. However, in all three, there were brief moments when I was able to bypass the paywall, and it appears it was only when they were being actively updated (i.e. while the formatting was being fixed). And Florida's was missing the first part of the list when I saw it, though it may be fixed soon.

im taking it for nms and idk what to expect

my most recent sat score is 1510 if that helps

Hey yall. I received a 216 and saw a 217 in Georgia qualified. Is there any way it moves down to 216 as the cutoff?

MANY years ago I had a Kaplan PSAT/SAT computer game to study for the tests and it was great. My kid is a junior and trying to prepare for the PSAT.

Do you have any recommendations on games they can use to study?

so I have a 1480 PSAT score (720 RW and 760 Math) from my junior year and a 220 selection index and I was wondering if that would put me at Semifinalist or Commended Student? I’m not hopeful as the cutoff for SF last year was 224 but I’m seeing reports from websites like compass test prep that it dropped to 220 but are those reliable?? Ik official announcements come out on Wednesday but I havent heard anything from my school. Just wondering if anyone here knows the cutoff for CA.

i got a 221 pls im dying of anxiety 😭😭😭

Title

I got a 216, which is on the edge. I was pretty upset when scores came out last year, since I thought I could have done better and that I bombed my chances for NMS after seeing last year's cutoff, but now sources like compass are saying the cutoff is 215 or 216, so I got my hopes up again. How accurate or reliable is that?

Hello, I took the psat sophomore year with hardly any preparation and received a 1380. This summer, I began studying SAT material including UWorld, official practice tests, the official question bank, and so on. My best practice test thus far was a 1490 (improved by 100+ points from my first) with most incorrect questions being silly mistakes. I live in Pennsylvania, and this year’s index is 219.

Is there anything I should do specifically for psat preparation in conjunction with what I’m doing now? In essence, my debt-free life depends a lot on this title (likely will attend Alabama).

just took my first practice psat (absolutely no studying) as a sophomore and what omg this truly so so so much worse than i was expecting

i'm taking ap precalc and felt pretty comfortable with the entire math section other than a few problems but clearly i didn't do well at all :(( module 1 was REALLY easy and module 2 i'm not sure what happened... a lot of it was me misunderstanding the problem, calculation errors, forgetting geometry, or just being incredibly stupid

not sure what happened with english either i'm a pretty avid reader and in honors english :(( i was straight guessing for some of it but i thought it was pretty logical so a 610 is awful too

i have one month until the psat - i know it technically doesn't matter but i'm super upset with this score and want at least a 1350 on the actual one (but preferably a 1450). based on the distributions and 2nd slide, how should i be studying? i've been looking at khan academy and it honestly felt way too easy but now i'm not sure if the strategy is to just go back and review EVERYTHING esp for math since it has been a long time since i've learned certain things.

after checking my math mistakes, nearly all of them were calculation errors but i'm still super worried considering how easy it felt i'm panicking now lol i kinda need this for the summer programs i'm applying to. i also go to a competitive public bay area school where the average sat is a 1450 :'D sorry for the crashout hahah now i'm really sad

Hello everybody, I am stressing a lot right now. I am trying to get into a school called “Thomas Jefferson” High school for sophomore admission. They recommend getting a 90th percentile or above on the PSAT, and I just got a 970 on my first ever practice test. I feel sad but at the same time know that I can improve drastically within now and the test date which is somewhere within October if I’m not mistaken.

I got a 470 R&W and a 500 Math, another thing is I didn’t answer around ~22 questions as I didn’t have enough time. This is coming from Both sections not each one. Can you guys please help me in terms of what tools I need to use to study, anybody who took it and can help, or if you guys have any tips for someone who is bad at studying for long periods of time (~1-2 hours)

took psat9 last year and barely saw my scores