Last year, 156 juniors took the Preliminary SAT (PSAT), a scholarship program sponsored by the College Board and the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), but only eight made it to semifinalists.
“That’s the most we’ve had in a really long time,” Principal Greg Mathison said.
The pool of the PSAT semifinalists represents less than one percent of high school seniors nationwide, according to the Rockwood School District website. The select number of students who become semifinalists include the highest-scoring entrants of each state.
The eight semifinalists from MHS are seniors Marissa Fabbri, Eric Hsu, James Krafcik, Philip Liu, Rashmi Madhavan, Madhav Narayan, Ellen Purcell, and Alexander Wennerberg.
Mary Parish, gifted resource teacher, said students who perform well on the PSAT can receive many scholarship opportunities, including scholarships sponsored by the NMSC or other organizations, companies or colleges.
“More students should take the PSAT,” Parish said. “It could never hurt you. If you bomb it, it’s not going to matter to colleges, but if you do well, you can get fame and recognition.”
Hsu said he did a couple of practice PSAT and SAT tests to prepare. He said taking the practice tests helped him get accustomed to the structure of the test and to know what type of questions to expect.
Madhavan said she didn’t prepare much for the PSAT besides taking the PSAT-prep class and doing practice books. She said her score improved after taking the class.
“Practice makes perfect,” Parish said. “It helps students get familiar with the content and format of the test.”
Because students can only take the PSAT once for recognition, Parish said students need to be ready for it.
“I was glad [when I got my score] because I thought I did a lot worse,” Hsu said.
Madhavan said she was happy and surprised when she found out she was a semifinalist because she was on the bottom edge of the scores.
Along with the eight semifinalists, 12 more students were recognized as commended scholars by the NMSC.
In order to become a finalist, semifinalists must have outstanding academic records, earn SAT scores confirming their PSAT performance, and be endorsed and recommended by a school official.
Madhavan said students need to fill out an application and write an essay to become a finalist.
“It’s a lot like a college application,” Madhavan said.
Hsu plans to attend Washington University next fall. He said he doesn’t know whether doing well on the PSAT will help him in the application process.
Madhavan said her top college choice is Emory.
“[The PSAT] is a small factor in the application process,” Madhavan said. “We’ll see what happens.”