Hey there, anyone have a clue what the cutoff score might be for National Merit Commended Scholar for 2023? Trying to gauge my chances here. Thanks in advance.
From what I understand, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC) doesn't officially release the commended cutoff or the semifinalist cutoffs for each state until they notify students of their status, typically around September. Hence, it might be tricky to provide a concrete number.
However, looking at historical trends can offer some insight. Typically, the Commended Scholar cutoff has fluctuated between 209-212 on the PSAT/NMSQT over the recent years. Note that the maximum score is 228. It's important to bear in mind that this is a national figure and doesn't change based on state or region.
You can get a general sense of the recent data from this CollegeVine blog post: https://blog.collegevine.com/national-merit-cutoffs/. These numbers are for National Merit Semifinalist status, but by subtracting a few points you can get an estimate of where the Commended Scholar benchmark would be.
While looking at past years can give you an idea, it's not a guaranteed predictor of future cutoffs because changes depend on the performance of each year's test-takers. Be sure to keep this in mind. Good luck!
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