Home/SAT Guides/SAT Math/Grid-ins
SAT Answers

Does the sophomore PSAT count for National Merit?

By Updated 1 September 2026

No. Only the PSAT/NMSQT taken in eleventh grade qualifies. The PSAT 10 and PSAT 8/9 are diagnostic only and carry no scholarship eligibility, which means juniors get exactly one attempt with no retake.

The practical consequence is that the junior PSAT/NMSQT is a single unrepeatable sitting, unlike the SAT. Sophomore year is therefore the window to treat the PSAT 10 as the rehearsal it is, because by the time the qualifying test arrives there is no second attempt to plan around.

The full picture, with the surrounding detail, is in PSAT National Merit Cutoffs by State + What It Predicts.

Practise this on real adaptive questions

PrepGenix runs the same module-adaptive format as Bluebook, with scoring handled server-side. Free to start.