Senior trio goes national in bid for Merit gold
Each year, around five million students pick up their pencils and scribble on their bubble sheets for the PSAT test. Out of said millions of test-takers, a special 307 crème de la crème test takers in Wisconsin were selected as National Merit Scholarship semifinalists. West seniors Elaina Balke, Anika Larson, and Robert Valero were recently announced as three of the students to meet the qualifications.
Balke was pleasantly surprised by the news of her accomplishment.
“I was super excited,” she said. “I honestly didn’t expect that I would be getting into the semi-finals because it's such a small number of people. It's a really big opportunity.”
Larson felt more relaxed and expectant.
“I had already done the score calculation online, and found out I should qualify,” she said. “So I guess I wasn’t really shocked.”
Valero was more startled by the delivery of the news, rather than the actual accomplishment.
“It was kind of scary because I just got an email that said to come to the office at the end of 6th hour,” he said. “I didn't know what it was for; they didn’t say. I just went down there and they told me the good news.”
In the wake of the good news, Valero strongly recommends that students try out the PSAT.
“There's no harm in taking it,” he said. “Colleges aren’t going to look at it if you do bad and I think it's good practice for getting used to the official test-taking environment. You might win money, you never know.”
Valero took the exam to prepare for future standardized tests.
“I wanted to take a practice, official kind of exam in preparation for the ACT,” he said. “I also wanted to try to get used to the exam, sitting there for a couple of hours and taking tests in math and reading.”
Meanwhile Balke was interested in the merit scholarship program from the start.
“I decided to take the PSAT mainly for the competition,” she said. “I knew that if I did well, I had a shot at becoming a National Merit Semi-finalist.”
Balke had confidence in her knowledge base, helping her through the test, and recommends others do the same.
“I would say to just go with your first instinct on things,” she said. “If you don’t answer a question, it’s not the end of the world, just move on and come back to it later. Don’t spend all your time on it.”
Larson gives similar advice.
“Just be relaxed and confident in yourself,” she said.
For the future, the trio now prepare to apply to become National Merit Finalists. Balke explains the application process.
“You have to fill out a form with your plans for the future, your college of choice, the extracurricular activities you’ve participated in, your transcript, and you have to write an essay.” she said.
Principal Erin Kohl is proud of these achievements, but merit transcends simple test scores and academics.
“The three of them are excellent students, of course, but in addition to their commitment to academic excellence they are also involved in other school and community activities,” she said. “These students exemplify what it means to be a Wildcat in every way.”
By Hannah Chung
Oshkosh West Index Volume 118 Issue 1
October 6th, 2021