PSAT Score Reports - When & How to Get PSAT Scores
PSAT results are typically available in early December, approximately six weeks after a student takes the PSAT. However, much as the PSAT made changes to it's content and format in 2015, the College Board has also changed their score reporting. School counselors will receive scores from the College Board, and in addition, PSAT scores are available to students online.
To obtain access to their scores, students must create an online account, or sign in if they already have one at the College Board site. Upon logging in or registering, students will see a screen with their scores. Some students may need an online access code which will be emailed from the College Board or obtained from your high school counselor. Students will then see detailed information about their PSAT results, including information on specific section results, readiness for the SAT, and readiness for college.
Sections of the PSAT Score Report
PSAT Total Scores show a student's entire composite score, which is found by adding the scaled score of the Evidence-Based Reading & Writing and Math sections. Each scaled section ranges in score from 160-760. Total scaled scores therefore range from 320-1520.
Percentile Ranks show how the student performed as compared with the other students in his/her grade. The PSAT score report includes two percentiles: Nationally Representative and PSAT/NMSQT User percentiles. Nationally Representative Sample percentiles indicate how well the student scored compared with all U.S. students in the student's grade, regardless of whether those students typically take the PSAT. For example, a score in the 47th percentile means that this student scored as well or better than 47% of the nationally representative group of U.S. students in the same grade. The online score report (but not the paper or PDF score reports) also includes the PSAT/NMSQT User Percentiles - National. These percentiles indicate how well the student scored compared with U.S. students in the student's grade who typically take the PSAT. The PSAT/NMSQT User Percentiles - National are usually lower and more informative than the Nationally Representative Sample percentiles because the population that takes the PSAT generally tends toward being higher-achieving.
College & Career Readiness Benchmarks give students feedback on their readiness for college-level academic work. Green scores indicates a student meets or exceeds the benchmark in that section; yellow scores indicate one is approaching readiness in that section, while red scores indicate more work is needed. This section also indicates Test Scores by subject area (Reading, Writing & Language, Math) as well as offering subscores and cross-test scores.
Selection Index is used for NMSQT scholarship qualification, and is calculated by doubling the sum of a student's Reading, Writing & Language, and Math test scores. To learn more about NMS qualifications, visit our National Merit Scholarship Qualifications page.
Your Scores: Next Steps offers useful information on how to improve a student's overall score, highlighting skills a student has mastered while also identifying those that need improvement.
Your Question-Level Feedback shows each question number, the correct answer, the student's answer, and the difficulty level of the question (easy, medium, or hard).
A sample PSAT score report is available on the College Board website.
Though colleges will not have access to a student's PSAT scores, they may request contact information for students who enrolled in the Student Search Service and scored within a certain range.
Related Topics
Wondering how PSAT scores are calculated? Visit our PSAT Scores page to find out.
Visit our National Merit Scholarship Qualifications page to find out if your child's scores qualify him or her for a National Merit Scholarship.
Want to learn more about the PSAT? Visit our PSAT Test page for information about the test format, question types, and scoring.
Frequently asked questions
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