The Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test (PSAT/NMSQT) employs a scoring mechanism to determine eligibility for scholarships and provide an indication of college readiness. This scoring mechanism generates an index score, derived from the student’s performance on the Reading, Writing and Language, and Math sections. The individual section scores are doubled, and then these doubled scores are summed to produce the index score. For example, if a student receives a score of 25 on each of the three sections, those scores are doubled to 50 each, and summed to arrive at an index score of 150.
This derived value serves as a critical indicator of a student’s academic strengths and weaknesses across core subject areas. High index scores can open doors to scholarship opportunities, most notably through the National Merit Scholarship Program. Furthermore, this value allows students, parents, and educators to track academic progress over time and identify areas where focused study and improvement may be needed. Historically, the index score has served as a standardized measure used to compare student performance across different test administrations and geographic regions.
