From PSAT to prestige
By Aaron Fair
Photo of classroom taken from Wikimedia Commons
Here at Owasso High School, student achievement is high. Whether it comes to producing top notch athletes or world-impacting intellectuals, OHS has a reputation of high academic performance greatness. Two students, Abram Smith and Jeramiah Watts, are among some of the recently qualified students for the most prestigious academic high school award—the National Merit Scholarship.
The process of achieving the National Merit Scholarship is rigorous, as it spans over multiple school years and showcases the dedication that these students uphold. With diligent effort in and out of the classroom, the steps to become a National Merit scholar make this award well with the work.
The first step in qualifying for the National Merit Scholarship is taking the Preliminary SAT in the student’s sophomore year. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation then selects the top scoring 50,000 students to advance toward the next step of taking the SAT and qualifying for the National Merit Program in their junior year.
As a result of the SAT, 34,000 students will be disqualified from the program and 16,000 will move on to be semifinalists. The semifinalists will then be judged based on their skills and accomplishments to be recognized as one of the 15,000 finalists. These finalists are then split into two groups of recipients: one that receives donation scholarships from corporate sponsors and another that receives college or National Merit funding.
The ability to score well on standardized tests is one that often does not come naturally; it takes much practice and dedication to be successful in stressful and high-stakes testing environments.
Abram Smith, a senior and National Merit finalist at OHS, speaks on the ways that he succeeded in his standardized testing experience.
“I think one of the big jumps in my standardized testing abilities actually came through my AP European History class with Mrs. McCammon, … and then of course taking math classes at a higher level of math can also be useful,” recalled National Merit Scholarship finalist Abram Smith.
Smith attests the majority of his testing ability to the public school system, as it was able to provide him with the knowledge and skills needed to succeed. Smith is the president of Owasso’s National Honor Society, Spanish Honor Society and a published author. Through his advanced level course work, he became familiar with the material, work-ethic and dedication necessary to attain scholar-like achievement.
The work that these students display is extremely impressive. The future holds great things for them, and the great strides they are taking to get themselves there is to be commended. Becoming a National Merit Scholar is a very large step to fulfill the dreams of young minds around the nation.