POULSBO — Four students from the North Kitsap School District are among those with top PSAT scores in the country.

Kingston’s Ian Convy and Madeleine Walker and North Kitsap’s Abigail Baldwin and Katrina Weinman earned PSAT scores among the top one-half percent of students who took the test recently. Weinman is also a Running Start student.

An approximate 1.5 million students took the test. Of those students, 16,000 are semifinalists.

The semifinalists have a chance to receive a National Merit Scholarship. Those in the running must advance to the finalist standing by meeting academic standards and other requirements, such as maintaining a high academic performance in grades nine to 12.

Last year, nearly $50 million in scholarships were awarded to about 10,200 students. Along with the semifinalists, seven students from the district were recognized as National Merit Commended Students, including: Kingston’s Jameson Bruce, Annie Roberts, Oliver Smith-Denny, Justine Sultan, and North Kitsap’s Mikaila Conklin, Seth Hyra and Running Start student Delany Lehmann. A total of 50,000 students received the distinction. Commended students did not receive a score high enough to be a semifinalists. The students still have an opportunity to become candidates for special scholarships sponsored by corporations and businesses.

The PSAT is a standardized test, providing practice for the SAT, the nation’s most widely used college admission exam. The PSAT measures reading skills, math problem solving skills, and writing skills.