Senior Wyatt Cole
Q: What does being recognized in the National Merit Scholarship Program mean to you?
A: “It’s validation, in a way. It’s nice knowing all the work I put into school and studying and everything pays off. It’s nice to see the results of it.”
Q: How did you find out you? How did you feel?
A: “I found out when I looked at my scores. It was a mix of feelings because part of me was really glad that I did as well as I did, but then there was also that small part of me that was like, ‘I was right below the line for the scholarship opportunity,’ but mainly I was just happy with how well I did.”
Q: What did you do to help improve your test scores leading up to it? What does it take to get the award?
A: “The biggest thing and the biggest help by far was I was on the PSAT team with Fieszel. They tell you a lot of hints about grammar and algebra and working [on] things faster and thinking about things in a different way so you can get through the test faster. That gives you more time to think about things and then just doing practice tests and everything else.”
Q: What are your college and career plans?
A: “I’ve applied to a few colleges. I’ve already been accepted to the University of Texas and my main my wish is to be a computer engineer.”
Q: What activities are you involved in at school? Anything outside of school?
A: “Mainly band, it takes up a lot of time. Then also Mu Alpha Theta and National Honor Society. I was in Boy Scouts, but I turned 18 so I’ve aged out of Boy Scouts and that was in September.”
Q: How will this award affect your life/future?
A: “I’m not sure how much it will affect my future, but hopefully it will help me get more scholarship money toward college which will help my family out as they’re trying to pay for my college.”
Q: What has been your biggest obstacle academically? Any specific class?
A: “I think it’s just time. Finding time to do everything in a reasonable amount of time.”
Q: How did you overcome it?
A: “Not procrastinating. It’s really hard to get it down to a consistent level, spreading out your work over several days and things like that because you know you tend to wait until the last second to do everything right before it’s due, but then you don’t do your best work.”
Q: Who in your life has helped you reach this point? How did they help you?
A: “A lot of it has been my parents because they have always pushed both of my brothers and me to do as well as we could, but also I think a lot of it is just my own self-motivation in anything I do. I like to work as hard as I can toward it just because I like to see how good I can be at whatever I’m doing.”
Q: What is your advice to others hoping to be National Merit Scholars?
A: “Study. That’s the biggest thing just study and work on it. If you have the chance, take the PSAT team class. It is extremely helpful. My score rose 200 points because of that class.”
Q: What class/outside of school tutoring prepared you the most?
A: “Obviously, the PSAT team is going to help because it’s specialized toward that, but I think when you’re taking all of the AP classes and all the advanced classes, they all contribute toward it because they all show you how to work hard toward something and toward studying and everything. It’s just a little bit of every class and it’s built up slowly.”
Q: Do you have any good study tips for the standardized tests?
A: “I know it sucks and it’s not fun at all, but the best thing you can do is take practice tests. It makes you fit everything into the time period it needs to be in. You have to answer all the questions in a specific set of time so it’s taking those practice tests and getting it down to a science.”