Eight Revere students PSAT scores have qualified them as National Merit Semifinalists, placing them on the path to become finalists.

This year, eight Revere High School students took the PSAT in October and received scores that qualified them for the National Merit Semifinalists. There are eight National Merit Semifinalists this year: Aayush Bansal, Tiger Du, Karl Godard, Jack Krew, Victoria Liu, Sydney Padgett,  Kyle Shin and William Sun.

Senior Karl Godard explained the significance of being a National Merit Semifinalist.

“From the approximately 1.6 million students who take the PSAT each year, the top 16,000 are deemed National Merit Semifinalists. These students are then eligible to become National Merit Finalists through an additional application process which includes; a personal essay, teacher recommendation and SAT score. Most of the benefits of National Merit materialize when one becomes a National Merit Finalist,” Godard said.

The defining factor of becoming a National Merit Semifinalist is receiving a certain score on the PSAT.

Senior Jack Krew explained how scores come into play when qualifying.

“Getting to this stage is just based on PSAT score. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation assigns each score an index from 48 to 228 and sets a cutoff for each state based on how well students did that year,” Krew said.

        The possibility of not qualifying may bring stress, the rewards for continuing to the finals are great enough to bring motivation to many students.

Senior Tiger Du talked about one of the more significant benefits of advancing to the finals.

“A one-time $2,500 scholarship from the NMSC in addition to other potential scholarships from colleges, universities, and companies,” Du said.

The benefits of becoming a finalist are rewarding and significant enough to guarantee preparation from many students taking the PSAT.

Studying for the test creates a lot of stress in students and many need to take time to relax and destress. Krew discussed his stress management process.

“Running helps a lot.  I try to avoid distracting myself from negative emotions, because that usually doesn’t solve the problem and just leads to more stress,” Krew said.