By Borislava Panayotova

   While the middle schoolers and seniors were out of school for the day in late October, freshmen, sophomores and juniors were all hard at work taking the PSAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test, one of the biggest academic scholarships offered to high school students.

   Each year, students who do especially well on the exam receive recognition and financial aid money to use for their future university. There are multiple types of honors for taking the test, but this year we had one National Merit Semifinalist, senior Tevin Nguyen, and three National Merit Commended Scholars, seniors Jonah Gagliardi, Taylor Conley and Jay Nergard. 

   There was one National Indigenous Scholar, junior Kailana Williams; one National African American Scholar, junior Mariah Gunnison; and five National Hispanic Scholars, junior Julia Hannon and seniors Will Chafey, Isabella Duran, Audrey Johnson, and Noah Quiros.

   All these students received their honors from last year’s qualifying test. 

   Senior Audrey Johnson talked about how over the summer before her junior year she took many Khan Academy practice tests. 

   When giving advice on how to prepare, Audrey said, “A good idea is to study and take a practice test.” A statement senior Taylor Conley shares. She also adds, “Brush up on your math skills, those are going to be like really important.”

    “I took like five or six of the practice SAT on Khan Academy,” said Taylor, who also utilized the tool over the summer.

   However, there have been some changes since the test that gave Audrey and Taylor their honors, the main one being the switch to an online exam. While the change makes certain tools, such as Khan Academy which still runs the old test program, outdated, it also updates the process making it easier for students. 

   This year’s new-style PSAT happened on Oct. 25. The juniors who did well on it will make up next year’s set of National Merit Scholarship Qualifiers.