The advantages of becoming a PSAT national merit scholar are numerous:
Special recognition on college applications. Most college applications have a spot to specially mark if you are a national merit scholar. Additionally, most of your peers will not have the same distinction as you setting you apart from them.
Scholarship opportunity from NMSC (National Merit Scholarship Corporation). Becoming a finalist will automatically enroll in a special scholarship opportunity offered by the corporation itself and corporate-sponsored scholarships which you can look for on their website: http://www.nationalmerit.org/.
Scholarship opportunity from colleges. Many colleges will prefer applicants with PSAT national merit status. Some colleges will even offer a full ride to applicants with such achievement. For example, in the past, Wayne State has offered all PSAT national merits full or half rides for achieving such standing.
Preferred admission to some specialized programs. There are programs in the country that strongly prefer national merit applicants and will invite them more than any others to interview or attend their school. For example, Alabama Straight Medical program will invite PSAT national merit applicants over any other to interview for their accelerated medicine program.
There are two score reporting methods: Score Choice and Report All Scores.
Most universities follow the Score Choice method. For these schools, students can elect to send only their best scores and do not have to send in any others. Some of these schools include Harvard University, the University of Michigan, and Michigan State University.
Schools that follow the Report all Scores method require students to send in all official test scores through the testing organization. For these schools, we recommend students to have no more than three official exam scores. If students are signed up for the exam and would rather take the test later, the best decision is to take the exam and immediately cancel your score (instead of canceling the test altogether). This provides a valuable testing experience that can help a student do better on future tests. Examples of universities that require all scores include Georgetown and Yale.
Keep in mind that most schools, including those mentioned above, have implemented temporary score policies to accommodate those affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. For this reason, it is very important for students to research the schools they are interested in by reading official admissions policy found only on the school website.
PSAT national merit is a competition student engage in by taking the PSAT in their junior year. Their score on the PSAT is the first obstacle to entering the competition. Each state has their own score requirement that students must achieve to surpass to the next level in the competition. For example in recent years in the state of Michigan students who achieved a 219 or above out of 228 on the PSAT were declared quarterfinalists for the national merit competition. Their performance in school, on the SAT, recommendations from their teacher, and an essay they had to write judged whether they would ultimately be finalists. You can find more information about the advantages of the PSAT and requirements on the following website: http://www.nationalmerit.org/.
The PSAT, or preliminary SAT, is a smaller version of the SAT exam that students will take during their high school career. The exam itself can be taken every year, but will only count during the junior year. The PSAT is a shorter exam and doesn’t have an essay. The exam is also out of 228 index score and 1520 points. Unfortunately this exam will only be significant for a student if he/she achieves a PSAT national merit score his junior year. If he/she fails to achieve such a score his PSAT score is not reported to colleges. Students who do achieve such a score though have earned a great distinction as very few students from each state actually do meet this score benchmark, helping to distinguish applicants from each other.
The SAT course consists of 3 components: lessons, practice tests, and online material. There are 23 lessons, each 2.5 hours, that cover high yield test information. The 8 practice tests, each 3.5 hours, provide an objective way to assess study habits and progression through the course.
The online material consists of learning modules, the question bank, and thousands of explanations. The entire course is 86 hours and spans 2.5 months in the summer and 4 months in the fall.
