National Merit Semi-Finalist and National AP Scholar!

Yesterday I received two snippets of great news--I'm a National Merit Semi-finalist and a National AP Scholar! Whether or not you advance to the National Merit Semi-finalist stage depends solely on your PSAT score, which for me, was 225, out of a possible 240. AP Scholar awards depend on the number of APs you take and the scores you receive. For National AP Scholar, you must take at least 8 AP tests and receive scores of at least 4s and 5s on all of them. 

California has one of the highest PSAT cutoffs in the nation- last year it was 223, which meant that if you scored a 223 or higher, you were eligible for the NMSF award. Although I got my PSAT results in December, I can now breathe a sigh of relief. I don't know what this year's cutoff score is, but I'm pretty sure it jumped no higher than one point (it may even have decreased a point or two, no one knows right now).