(May 10, 2006) — ive minutes before the authoritative bell rang for snack on April 17, chemistry teacher Gerald Gruss’ lecture on solutions was interrupted by an unexpected visit from Assistant Principal Joan Shoff and counselor Karen Carlson. It was time to announce this year’s candidates for the National Merit Scholarship award, and the room suddenly filled with anticipation. Shoff finally broke the ice by announcing one of the five Merit Scholar candidates: junior William Pettijohn-Hernandez. “I didn’t think that my score would measure up to people who had spent a long time studying and taking classes and that kind of stuff,” Pettijohn-Hernandez said. “I was really happy when I found out.” This year turned out to be a particularly good year for our school’s PSAT-taking juniors. A total of five students scored high enough to qualify for the award. Besides Pettijohn-Hernandez, juniors Kavita Atwal, Johaina Crisostomo, Nick Lee and Anand Sharma were also part of the highest-scoring 50,000 students out of the 1.4 million who took the test. “I don’t remember ever having this many students in the same year—I think we usually have only one student in a year’s time,” Shoff said. “This year having five is just outstanding for our small population.” According to Carlson, now that the students have been commended they will have to compete with the other Merit Scholar candidates throughout the country for spots in the semi-finalist and finalist rounds. With this higher level of competition, they will be judged based on their grades, personal statements and final SAT I scores. However, Carlson said that each level already comes with prestige and just to be qualified is already something to be proud of. As preparation for the test, Lee and Atwal said they took Elite Northridge’s SAT preparatory program. Both thought the classes were useful since they were able to improve their scores by up to 400 points. “It was a good program. They taught me the ‘ins and outs’ of SAT and how to outsmart the test, because the SAT doesn’t really test what you know but how you take the test,” Lee said. In Atwal’s case, taking the real SAT I the weekend before proved extra helpful in calming her nerves. “Since I took the SAT I the weekend before the PSAT, I felt less anxious and more prepared on that day,” Atwal said.