2023 National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists
Samo students Milo Berini (’24) and Justin Xu (’24) were named semi-finalists for the National Merit Scholarship competition and are proud and honored to become a semi-finalist.
Taylor Witt / The Samohi
Milo Bernini (’24)
The National Merit Scholarship Program is an academic scholarship competition that works to allow students to receive praise and college scholarships based on their PSAT scores. Upon taking the PSAT in 11th grade, every test taker is automatically submitted for the National Merit Scholarship. The students with the highest scores on the test become semi-finalists for the scholarship, and can further apply to receive the scholarship.
The program has been going on for almost 100 years with 1.5 million students entering the National Merit Scholarship Program, and the award is given to 10,000 students. Every year around 7,500 high school juniors receive a national merit scholarship, and each scholar receives $2,500. That money can help students financially since college is already very expensive with the costs of tuition, food, dorm and supplies. The semi-finalist status can be placed on college applications to try and boost their application.
There has been back and forth between whether the SAT should be required for students to take the test scores to be on students' application. Bernini's opinion on the matter is that taking the SAT doesn’t harm students, but instead is a great advantage to use.
“I think that taking the SAT should be optional but encouraged. It should be the student's own choice whether or not they want to take it and not something forced upon them,” Berini said. “However, I do think every student should be encouraged to take advantage of Samohi's SAT School Day, which is the day when everybody has the opportunity to take the SAT on campus for free.”.
Taylor Witt / The Samohi
Justin Xu (‘24)
Berini and Xu said they prepared by using Khan Academy SAT practice. They would take the available practice tests and score them, analyzing the mistakes they made. As they made mistakes, they would work on practice questions to improve their weaknesses. By incorporating those strategies, Berini said he gained the confidence to tackle the SAT and improved his time-management abilities. As a result of practicing beforehand, Berini said he was relaxed during the test and confident he had sufficient time to finish it.
Xu said he studied English the most, as the reading and comprehension parts are a big part of getting a high score on the SAT. Through all the practice he completed he shares his advice for people trying to receive a National Merit scholarship.
“The main advice I have to offer to anybody hoping to receive a National Merit scholarship is to work on time management in preparation for the PSAT,” Xu said. “Becoming confident that you have more than enough time to answer every question helps you remain calm and focused during the test, which in turn results in a higher score.”