People often wonder why more students attending international schools do not become National Merit Semifinalists. It's a complicated question, but here is an explanation.

Index Cutoff Score

The National Merit Program uses a state-by-state "Index Cutoff" which specifies the score students need to earn on the PSAT. A student's selection index is arrived at by adding together the three sections of the PSAT. Each PSAT subtest ranges from 20 to 80--equivalent to the 200 to 800 SAT subtest scores. A selection index of 221 would be equivalent to earning a 730 or 740 on each of the three (critical reading, math, and writing) subtests on the SAT Reasoning Test.

The Semifinalist cutoff scores vary widely from state to state. In 2010 they ranged from a score of 203 or lower in Arkansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, West Virginia and Wyoming to a high of 221 for US citizens living outside the country. According to NMSC, they vary scores by state so that "... able students from all parts of the nation will be included in the Semifinalist talent pool." The number of Semifinalists named in each state is proportional to the state’s percentage of the national total of high school graduating seniors. It is much easier to be named a Semifinalist in most states than it is overseas.

Use of Precise Cutoffs

The National Merit Scholarship Program uses a precise cutoff for entry into the National Merit Scholarship Program. This goes against the recommendation of the College Board, who publishes the SAT and specifically asks users not to use precise score cutoffs. According to the College Board's website, "When comparing [PSAT] scores between students in the same skill area, true differences in skill levels can be determined using the standard error of the difference (SED). Differences of fewer than 8 points (or 1.5 SED) [in each score area] are not significant, while differences of 8 points or more reflect true differences in skills."

Due partly due to the problems associated with the way National Merit uses scores, the six campuses of the University of California that finance National Merit Scholarships stopped awarding these scholarships in 2006. UC officials cited concerns about the use of the PSAT as a qualifying examination for the scholarships.

SAS Semifinalists and Commended Students

In the Class of 2010, Yvonne Chen and Kelly Zhang were named as Semifinalists in the Annual National Merit Scholarship Competition (NMSC). NMSC named 16,000 students as Semifinalists with only 90 students living outside the US receiving the Semifinalist distinction this year.

Approximately 34,000 academically able high school students were honored as Commended Students. The following members of the Class of 2010 received this designation and received a Letter of Commendation: Christopher Chee, Dennis Chu, Danielle Courtenay, Ying Feng, Anjuli Finch, Sahil Lavingia, Natalie Muller, Cory Robinson, Sidharth Shanker, Michael Szopiak, Claudia Thieme, Kathryn Tinker, Yuvika Tolani, Daryle Utama, John Widjaja, and Anne Yeung.

Finding State-by-State Score Cut-offs

Previously, this website had listed the cut-off score required of students from each of the 50 states as a service to our students and parents who were confused about why students from other states with lower scores were identified as Semi-Finalists, but they weren't. Because of our mobile population, many of our students had lived in other states and were curious about whether they would have been named a Semifinalist had they not moved to Singapore.

On October 3, 2005, SAS was asked by Elaine Detweiler, Director of Public Information for National Merit Scholarship Corporation, to remove this "copyrighted information" from our website. We complied with this request. The state-by-state cutoffs are printed in the National Merit Scholarship Program Guide and the information continues to be available from all high schools participating in the National Merit program. If you are curious about these state-by-state cutoffs, please contact your school and ask to see the National Merit Scholarship Program Guide.