And then there were seven.

Seniors Joyce Forster, Sravya Gadepalli, Grace Ma, Vinay Pillai, Jonathan Vu, Andrew Wells and Wayne Xiao have been named semifinalists in the 64th National Merit Scholarship Program.

Nearly 4.3 million students took the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test, or National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, in November 2017. Students’ raw scores out of 1520 were converted to index scores ranging from 213 to 223, depending on the students’ state of residence. The cutoff index score for California was 223. Although exact cutoff scores vary from year to year, Vu said looking at previous scores allowed him to predict his semifinalist status.

“They had released the index scores earlier so I knew it was going to happen eventually,” Vu wrote to the Talon. “When they called me in and everyone else showed up, it confirmed what I thought.”

Although semifinalists were publicly announced Sept. 12, the students were informed privately Aug. 31 by Principal Kevin Buchanan.

Forster said she was caught off guard by her semifinalist status.

“I was ridiculously happy. I had worked really hard to get a good score on the SAT and PSAT, so I was honestly ecstatic when I found out I was a semifinalist,” Forster wrote to the Talon. “It had been so long since we took the PSAT that I began thinking I didn’t make it.”

Of the 16,000 semifinalists across the United States, 15,000 will become finalists. To be considered for finalist status, semifinalists must complete an application which includes transcripts, other standardized test scores and a personal essay. Finalists will be announced in February 2019.

“It’s a little stressful, it’s a bit more work added on top of everything else that I have to do,” Wells said.

According to Gadepalli, the most important aspect of performing well on the PSAT is to remember the practice one has done and be able to connect it to exam questions.

“In the moment, if you don’t apply yourself properly for all the questions and all the prep you did, then it’s kind of a waste,” Gadepalli said.

Ma said she found the reading section to be the most difficult.

“The easiest section for me is math, so I didn’t really have trouble with math. Writing is also kind of mathematical — once you know the grammar concepts, you can’t really mess up on that,” Ma said. “But for reading, there’s a lot of room for error, it’s all subjective. There’s not a clear, direct answer as there is with math.”

Xiao attributes his success to luck as well as solid preparation.

“I think that the score on the PSAT really represents a performance under pressure,” Xiao wrote to the Talon. “It’s just a matter of circumstance, where I performed at the right time and was lucky enough to come away with a great score.”

Pillai said this opportunity is of great personal importance to him.

“I view it as the culmination of all the work I’ve put in during high school,” Pillai wrote to the Talon. “I guess it’s just a reminder that unexpected good things will come to those who work hard.”