Xavier senior Mahima Sangera has been named a National Merit Scholarship Semifinalist (photo by Lisa Zuba).
Each year the National Merit Scholarship Corporation NMSC announces the names of semifinalists in the National Merit Scholarship Program. This year there were 16,000 students named.
These academically talented high school seniors have an opportunity to continue in the competition for over 7,000 National Merit Scholarships worth nearly $28 million that will be offered next spring. About 95 percent of the Semifinalists are expected to attain Finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the Merit Scholar title.
Over the years many students from Xavier College Preparatory have attained Finalist standing. This year, Mahima Sangera, a senior at Xavier is one of those semifinalists in the 2024 National Merit Scholarship Program.
High school students enter the National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. It serves as a selection tool for the more than one million students who enter the program each year.
Sangera identified two important preparation areas for the test: studying and handling stress. She primarily used the College Board free practice tests, review books and subject matter videos on YouTube. She recommends beginning to study, as she did in her sophomore year of high school.
“Not only will that provide you with additional time to learn, but it greatly reduces your stress as you gain confidence in subject areas,” said Sangera.
One way of handling the stress that accompanies the PSAT is familiarity.
“Right at the beginning of the exam, once the first few questions came up, I recognized them. I was already familiar with the structure and types of questions because of all my studying.”
Sangera said that you can increase scores by a lot of preparation. For example, she used to struggle with vocabulary, but by studying and using new words in her day-to-day life, Sangera increased her knowledge and confidence. She recommends focusing on math problems that confuse you and continuing to dig deep to look at material specific to the issues.
Being involved in speech and debate has been a large part of Sangera’s life at Xavier since she was a sophomore. She said, “I enjoy putting myself in situations where the outcome is entirely up to me, and it makes me more confident.”
