Senior Christian Garcia-Sanchez was named a National Merit Semifinalist, which places him in the top 0.5% of all current seniors who took the PSAT in Texas last year. As a first-generation college prospect, Christian also received recognition from the College Board earlier in the year and plans to pursue chemical engineering and chemistry after graduation.
“Being named as a Semifinalist feels surreal,” Christian said. “I’ve always dreamed of getting to this level, but it just doesn’t feel real.”
Though Christian has worked hard throughout high school, he recognizes that academics are not the only thing that matters and encourages students to keep their priorities in order.
“Study, but try not to worry because you can always retake the test,” Christian said. “A lot of people put too much pressure on themselves. It’s good to study, but you shouldn’t overwork yourself. You should let yourself be a kid.”
Many of Christian’s teachers have watched him grow as an academically-minded student over the last few years and are not surprised by the success he has found.
“As a student, Christian is determined and focused, always has a plan for completing assignments, and follows the plan,” IB English teacher Lisa Prejean said. “I’m proud of his hard work and accomplishments to gain that status because of all the effort he put in.”
In addition to Christian’s success, seniors Alex Basile and Camden Adams were also recognized as Commended Students by the College Board, ranking them in the top 2-3% of all seniors who took the PSAT last year nationally.
“Being recognized as a commended student through the College Board means a lot,” Camden said. “It’s something that I had my eye on as a freshman and sophomore, but it kind of slipped my mind for a while, and so having it come back and being recognized for it after so much hard work really means a lot, and it’s really cool to see all of that hard work pay off.”
With so many standardized tests, students sometimes lose focus on how impressive College Board recognition is as it exemplifies the top-tier students nationwide.
“It’s kind of unreal,” Alex said. “I didn’t realize the full scale of this recognition until it actually happened, and it’s a much bigger deal than I originally realized.”
Alex is the drum major for the band this year, and his teachers believe that the added duties have positively influenced his work ethic as he looks to pursue a degree in computer engineering at Texas A&M University in the fall.
“Alex is energetic and very focused this year on keeping his grades up,” Prejean said. “He is much more responsible for the extracurriculars he is involved in, so he is much more focused on his plans.”
As part of Viking Theatre, Camden has also worked on balancing extracurriculars and academics and hopes to attend Rice University, where he can focus on STEM and the fine arts.
“This is my first year working with Camden, but I can already tell he is a hard worker,” Prejean said. “Camden is very bright, well-read, a good writer, and thoughtful in his commentary.”
Both boys said that preparing for the SAT is not difficult but requires dedication and effort.
“The best way to prepare for the SAT is to do a lot of practice tests and practice problems,” Camden said. “That’s by far the best way to prepare. You will see a lot of stuff online about courses and guides, but at the end of the day, what helps the most is just knowing what the test will be like.”
Students who do well on the test frequently recognize that it is sometimes more about knowing how to take the test than knowing the material.
“It helps to know the amount of time you have per question and what the questions will look like,” Alex said. “The more familiar you are with how the test looks, the better you will do. Identifying strategies and knowing which questions you can answer quickly and how to make the best guess if you are unsure will help your test score.”
Sometimes, students blow off pretests and preparation because they are over-tested and only concerned about the final tests. Still, Alex encourages students to take it seriously and utilize the added practice.
“My freshman and sophomore year, I just kind of threw away the PSAT,” Alex said, “but that was an opportunity to practice it like the day of; the PSAT is just like a testing day, so students should take advantage of every chance they get to prepare for the real SAT.”
