@yofaith - Thanks. I know that 198 did NOT make it last year in Texas region so I was curious if the cutoff went down for 2013 as NMSF cutoff in Texas went down 3 points.
But that's been overshadowed my semi-finalist status in the national merit competition.
People always immediately think I only got National Achievement when I first tell them about my Merit status, even when I don't mention Achievement. It's pretty annoying.