Across America, about 22,000 high schools enter their students in the chance to be National Merit Scholars. This year, Arlington High has nine juniors who have been awarded the honor: Maya Baudino, Laura Britton, Michelle Bui, Alyssa Hoelscher, Emily Hoffer, Dean Johnson, Madison Moore, Megan Nguyen, and Grace Ramsey.

To be considered for National Merit, students must do exceptionally well on the PSAT.

“National Merit is a program that awards the top percentage of the students that did well on the PSAT [the opportunity] to get a scholarship,” Bui said.

To achieve academic success, students take the time to go through preparation, as Baudino did.

“I just looked at the preparation booklet that they handed out and I worked a lot on Khan Academy,” Baudino said. “We did a lot of prep in my classes and I did some at home. I even had a couple of prep books that I looked at.”

Most would consider receiving this achievement a huge honor and Britton is no different.

“I felt really relieved,” she said. “My English teacher was really expecting me to do it. She was like, ‘I bet you can do it!’ and I was like ‘alright!’”

To even have a chance to be a National Merit Scholar, Bui agrees that it’s important to always try your best.

“Study and try,” she said. “A lot of people blow off the PSAT because they think it’s no big deal, but you have an opportunity to get a huge scholarship.”

When it comes to college, having the title of National Merit Scholar one one’s resume is can be of assistance to get into the college of your dreams.

“It’s an honor just to have on your resume,” Baudino said.

Britton says that if one aspires to obtain this title, than they should think about taking some more challenging courses and possibly a prep class.

“If you have an opportunity to take an SAT prep class definitely go for it,” she said. “Taking the higher level English classes have also really helped me, because I didn’t really understand a lot of the SAT reading questions until I had Mrs. Burris.”

SATs begin in March, and it’s not too late to take the test over the summer. Go to www.collegeboard.org to register today.