Powerplay Noob question: What's wrong with this picture?

[Kyr One]

I don't even want to say how many hours (not to mention ship buys, builds, and interdiction rebuys) I put into grinding this out before the reset. But apparently I still did something wrong? Isn't 750 merits sufficient to reach rating 3?

 

[schmicknick]

You earned those merits while at Rating 1.
When the powerplay cycles in a few hours, which it does every week, you will be at the new rating that your active merits have earned.
Hope that helps explain it.. Cheers, Cmdr. o7