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Fifteen WHHS students were deemed semifinalists this year for their academic performance on the PSAT/NMSQT, the national merit scholarship qualifying test. Many colleges give out partial and even full scholarships for national merit finalists, but less than 1% of high school seniors nationwide actually qualify. This can lead to competition and pressure among students to score better than one another.
“I started to feel some pressure, not for a good score necessarily, but I wanted to be national merit for the scholarship reasons,” Marie Flessa, SENIOR, a national merit semifinalist, said about the PSAT she took last fall.
Flessa believes the test doesn’t fully reflect the knowledge of every student.
“I think national merit is a good way to give scholarships but I don’t think it should be the only thing considered,” Flessa said. “There are people that have various circumstances that make it hard to study for the test. It’s a lot easier to do well when you have the time and opportunities and resources to be able to prepare for it.”
Flessa thinks the atmosphere at WHHS creates pressure to not only do well on standardized tests like the PSAT, but to exceed classmates academically.
“In the school environment, whether it’s after a test, after AP exams or about college, everyone’s just asking you what your score was, and comparing is the most stressful part for me,” Flessa said. “I would say the stress does motivate me but it [makes] my mental health worse.”
Selima Aousheva, SENIOR, a national merit commended student, agrees with Flessa about the competitive culture at WHHS.
“When you’re in classes like AP Chemistry, AP Biology, AP Physics [and] AP Calculus, you have this pressure to do better and the people around you also have this pressure to do better,” Aousheva said. “Everyone wants to get into the same colleges so there is this rope of tension between everyone that’s applying: who’s going to get in, who’s not.”
Aousheva wasn’t initially satisfied with her PSAT score, but she realized she has much more to offer on her college applications and in life.
“I [realized] it doesn’t really matter to me if I have perfect scores if [it means] I don’t have a personality, if I’m not praying on time in my religion, if I’m not sticking to my values,” Aousheva said. “I started evaluating myself as a whole person, thinking of how I could be the best person I can be in all sectors of life rather than just academic success, which is just one thing that other students see.”
Like Flessa, Aousheva believes that there are several aspects that can influence your PSAT score.
“There are a lot of extraneous factors like how you’re emotionally feeling, how much sleep you got, how much you’re taking care of yourself and especially since it’s junior year or senior year when you take your test, [the stress] of not just the test but everything else going on in your life,” Aousheva said. “So, it’s not an indicative measure of how well you’re going to do in life.”
Aousheva hopes that underclassmen facing academic pressure in the future remember to prioritize their personal values.
“Try not to dwell too much on the academics of school,” Aousheva said. “Don’t think just because there are other talented people in the world, you’re not equally as capable of achieving whatever you want to do.”
