This year, it was particularly tough to become a National Merit semifinalist, with the selection index in California increasing by one point. However, the Class of 2019 rose to the challenge, with a grand total of 25 National Merit semifinalists.
National Merit is a corporation that identifies top scholars based on their PSAT scores from junior year. To be a semifinalist, a student must be in the top 1 percent of all test-takers.
Despite the higher test scores required this year, the following seniors were able to qualify for the honor:
Nirav Adunuthula, Victor Chen, Francesca Chu, Elaine Fan, Ankur Garg, Jamie Hong, Ethan Ko, Alexandra Li, Thomas Lim, Victor Liu, Nathan Luk, Carolyn Ma, Sirisha Munukutla, Kiran Rachamallu, Yashwanth Rachepalli, Arian Raje, Alex Ruemmler, Blake Smith, Justin Sun, Amy Tang, Tanuj Vasudeva, Merrick Wang, Catherine Wu, Annie Xu and Michael Zhang.
