PSAT/NMSQT^®

One Sitting.
No Retake.
It Decides National Merit.

Junior year is the only PSAT/NMSQT that counts for scholarship consideration, and there is no second attempt.
That makes it the one test on this site where knowing your projected score months out is worth more than any amount of last-week cramming.

Start Test Prep

$89/mo covers all five tests · Cancel anytime · No per-test unlock

2
Scored sections: 98
Questions, total: 320–1520
Score scale: 143
Skills we track

The structure

Structurally the SAT.
Consequentially Not.

Same two sections, same two-module adaptive design, same 64 and 70 minutes.
The scale tops out at 1520 instead of 1600, and the score routes into the National Merit Scholarship Program rather than into an application.

The Selection Index is the number that actually matters. National Merit does not read your 320–1520 total. It reads a Selection Index: twice the sum of your two section scores, divided by ten — a 48–228 scale. Cutoffs are set per state and move every year, so there is no national target to aim at; find your state's recent cutoffs and aim above them with room, because the number you need is not published until after you sit.

What is covered

Both Scored Sections, on the Current Blueprint

The content domains match the digital SAT^®, which is the whole reason this test doubles as the best possible rehearsal for it.

Reading and Writing

64 minutes · 54 questions · 2 adaptive modules · 67 tracked skills

What the blueprint covers

Craft and Structure — words in context, text structure, cross-text connections
Information and Ideas — central ideas, command of evidence, inference
Standard English Conventions — boundaries, form, structure, sense
Expression of Ideas — rhetorical synthesis and transitions

What practice feels like

Short single-question passages and no time to reread. At the Selection-Index end of the scale this is usually the section with the headroom, because conventions questions are finite and learnable in a way that inference questions are not.

See the full outline

Math

70 minutes · 44 questions · 2 adaptive modules · 76 tracked skills

What the blueprint covers

Algebra — linear equations, systems, inequalities
Advanced Math — nonlinear functions, quadratics, exponentials
Problem-Solving and Data Analysis — ratios, percentages, distributions
Geometry and Trigonometry — area, volume, triangles, circles

What practice feels like

Slightly gentler than the SAT's Math section, and student-produced responses still appear. Near a Selection-Index cutoff a single Math question can be the whole margin, which is what the per-skill gap map is for.

See the full outline

Scoring

Two Scales, One Test

You get a 320–1520 total for orientation and a 48–228 Selection Index for National Merit.
Only one of them is a threshold, and it is not the one printed largest.

PSAT/NMSQT Selection Index bands and what they generally indicate
Score	What it generally means
221–228	Above every published state cutoff in recent years. Comfortable rather than borderline.
209–220	The band most state Semifinalist cutoffs have fallen inside. Whether it clears depends on your state and your year.
190–208	Commended range in many years, and short of Semifinalist in most states. This is where a focused term moves the outcome, not just the number.
48–189	Below recent cutoffs. The score still matters as SAT calibration — and as a diagnostic, it is arriving at exactly the right time.

Cutoffs are per state, per year, and published after the fact. Anyone quoting you a single national number is guessing. Look up the last three years for your own state, take the highest, and treat that as the floor — the readiness forecast here will tell you months in advance whether you are tracking above it.

In practice

How the Course Handles the PSAT/NMSQT

A one-shot test with a state-dependent threshold is a scheduling problem as much as a study problem.
Most of what follows exists to make the months before October count.

A Selection Index projection, months out

Projected section scores with a confidence band, which is what a Selection Index is built from. Knowing in June that you are tracking four points under your state's usual cutoff is a plan; finding out in December is a story.

Planned backwards from an October date

Autopilot works to the actual administration window rather than a generic calendar, and rebuilds around the school year — which for a junior means it plans around finals, not through them.

The same work counts twice

Every skill proven here transfers straight to the SAT, because the blueprints are the same. Preparing for this test is not a detour from SAT prep; it is SAT prep with a scholarship attached.

Unlimited full-length rehearsals

Generated per attempt, adaptive within the section like the real thing. For a test you only get to take once that counts, rehearsal volume is the cheapest advantage available.

PSAT/NMSQT Questions

Which year's PSAT/NMSQT counts for National Merit?

The one you take in 11th grade. A 10th-grade PSAT/NMSQT, and the PSAT 10 and PSAT 8/9, are practice and diagnostics — useful, but they do not enter scholarship consideration. If you are a sophomore reading this, that is good news: you have a full year and a real dry run.

What score do I need for National Merit?

It depends on your state and on the year, and the number is published after the fact rather than before. Selection Index cutoffs for Semifinalist standing have historically ranged roughly from the low 200s to the low 220s depending on state. Look up your own state's last three years and aim above the highest of them.

Is the PSAT/NMSQT digital and adaptive like the SAT?

Yes. Two sections, two modules each, with module two selected from how you did on module one. Same 64 and 70 minutes. The scale tops out at 1520 rather than 1600.

Do I have to register myself?

Usually not — most students take it at their own school, and the school handles registration and ordering. That also means the deadline is your school's, not College Board's, and it is easy to miss. Ask your counselor in September at the latest.

Is preparing for this a waste if I miss the cutoff?

No, and this is the honest reason to prepare regardless: the blueprint is the SAT's blueprint. Everything you build here you keep for a test that every college on your list will actually see.

Can I use this alongside the SAT course?

They are the same subscription and the same adaptive profile. Skills proven on one appear as already-proven on the other rather than being re-tested from zero.

Do you offer the PSAT 10 or PSAT 8/9?

Not as separate courses. Their content sits inside the same blueprint at a lower difficulty band, so the PSAT/NMSQT course covers the material — the adaptive engine simply meets you where you are.

One Sitting Counts.
Start Before It Does.

The PSAT/NMSQT, SAT, ACT, GRE, and GMAT are all in the same $89/mo subscription. Prepare for the one in October and you have already prepared for the one in March.