On October 14 Lewis-Palmer High School administered the Preliminary Scholastic Assessment Test (PSAT) to District 38’s junior and sophomore classes. At 7:00 a.m. juniors and sophomores who chose to pay the $25 fee to take the test, gathered in the Lewis-Palmer gymnasium. The test consists of three sections: reading, writing and language, and mathematics. While students are not required to take the standardized test, those who do could benefit greatly.

Every year 3.4 million juniors and sophomores take the PSAT, and while it does not count towards one’s transcript in admissions to college, it does offer a chance at winning the National Merit Scholarship. This scholarship is highly prestigious, and offers $2,500 towards the winners’ freshman costs of college. Of the Lewis-Palmer students who took the PSAT last year, four are semifinalists for the scholarship.

The four semifinalists are Andie Turner, Catherine Best, Greger Peterson, and Sofia Kirienko. There are only 16,000 semifinalists chosen nationally of the initial 3.4 million who took the test. That lands these four Lewis-Palmer students in the top 99th percentile in the state of Colorado.

After taking the PSAT semifinalist Andie Turner, 12, said, “I have taken the SAT every year of high school, so I was pretty confident going in, and when I found out I got it, it was really exciting!”

On October 14 of this year, Turner’s younger brother, Dylan Turner 11’ participated in the PSAT.

“It was really cool. My little brother just took it (the PSAT), and my mom is hoping he makes it as far as I have,” Andie said.

These four students will not find out if they move on and become finalists until February 2016. While they were selected as semifinalists based  off of their high score on the PSAT, all of them must maintain good grades, submit letters of recommendation, and write a biographical letter in order to have a chance at being finalists. Lewis-Palmer has never had a National Merit Scholarship winner, and with four semifinalists this year, we may have a chance.

This year Lewis- Palmer had almost 100 students take the PSAT.

Senior counselor Mrs. Githens said that in this upcoming year, “We have a pretty good chance of having a couple semifinalists again. That is always the hope. And we probably will because, we are Lewis-Palmer.”