PSAT Score Decoder
Your PSAT total, your National Merit Selection Index against the national Commended level, and last year’s Semifinalist cutoff in your state.
Your Selection Index shows up here
Fall 2026
When fall 2026 scores arrive
PSAT/NMSQT scores come out on one of three dates, depending on when your school sent in its answer sheets:
- Oct 22, 2026
- Nov 5, 2026
- Nov 12, 2026
The fall 2026 PSAT/NMSQT is the qualifying test for the 2028 program (source (nationalmerit.org, opens in a new tab)).
The score gains are arithmetic on NMSC’s Selection Index formula, not a prediction of what you’ll score. NMSC decides who qualifies; check its site for your year’s rules.
Where these facts come from
The PSAT/NMSQT has two section scores, Reading and Writing and Math, each from 160 to 760. Your total is the two added together, from 320 to 1520. Your score report also shows score ranges and percentiles.
NMSC Selection Index = (2 × Reading and Writing + Math) ÷ 10. NMSC doubles the Reading and Writing score, adds the Math score, and divides by 10.
The NMSC Selection Index runs from 48 to 228. NMSC uses it as an initial screen of the program’s entrants.
The PSAT/NMSQT and the SAT use a common score scale. The PSAT/NMSQT’s total runs from 320 to 1520; the SAT’s from 400 to 1600.
Students spending the usual four years in high school enter the National Merit Scholarship Program with the PSAT/NMSQT they take in their third year (11th grade).
NMSC has other entry requirements too. The NMSC section of your score report shows your answers to its entry questions and whether your Selection Index will be considered for the program.
Fall 2026 PSAT/NMSQT scores reach students on Oct 22, Nov 5 or Nov 12, 2026, depending on when the school sent in its answer sheets.
NMSC’s national Selection Index qualifying score for Commended Students in the 2027 program — juniors who took the PSAT/NMSQT in fall 2025 — was 208. NMSC applies one national level for Commended Students and says it may vary from year to year.
NMSC screens more than 1.2 million program entrants. More than two-thirds of the high scorers (about 34,000) are named Commended Students, and more than 16,000 qualify as Semifinalists. Commended Students don’t continue in the competition for National Merit Scholarships, though some may be candidates for Special Scholarships from corporate sponsors.
More than 16,000 high scorers qualify as Semifinalists. NMSC allocates Semifinalists to each state by its share of graduating seniors, so the Semifinalist qualifying score varies from state to state and from year to year. NMSC notifies the 2028 program’s Semifinalists through their high schools in September 2027.
The Class of 2026 and Class of 2027 state Semifinalist qualifying scores, as NMSC set them. NMSC doesn’t publish a list: these are compiled from its notices to schools, and two other compilations (Test Ninjas and DigitalPSAT) give the same Class of 2027 numbers.
The fall 2026 PSAT/NMSQT is the qualifying test for entry to the 2028 National Merit Scholarship Program.