In past years, there has been a widening gap in the number of National Merit Semifinalists between Marcus and Flower Mound High School. This year, Flower Mound has 21 while Marcus has six.

In 2010, Flower Mound had 34 semi-finalists while Marcus had 18 and in 2009, Flower Mound had 13 and Marcus had eight. PSAT team teacher Brenda Glidewell said she doesn’t know the reason for this pattern.

“That’s a question that we ponder,” Glidewell said. “I think a lot of things factor into that.”

Being a finalist often means being awarded full-ride scholarships from several universities like the University of Oklahoma and Texas A&M, in addition to a $2,500 grant from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.

Marcus prepares students for the PSAT by means of a nine-week PSAT team class in the fall of junior year. Students who make above a 163 on their practice sophomore PSAT are invited to join. All teams in the district share a general curriculum, but Marcus PSAT teachers tweak the curriculum every year based on students’ weak areas according to their on sophomore year PSAT.

While on the PSAT team, Marcus students take four full length PSATs. There is a four-day-long summer session, and in the fall session practice packets and the official College Board SAT Practice book is utilized. Last year, less than 100 students enrolled on the team. Senior Tori Bertocci was a member of the PSAT team and is a Semifinalist this year.

“I think (the team) definitely helped, just because the questions are formatted in a certain way,” Bertocci said. “It’s helpful to practice those particular questions. With the English section you start to kind of think the way College Board thinks.”

Bertocci made a 235 on her junior year PSAT, a 42-point jump from her sophomore year. She said the class’s effectiveness was due in part to who taught it.

“A packet is great, but if you don’t explain it in a way that’s going to stick inside someone’s mind, it’s not a whole lot of help,” Bertocci said.

The Flower Mound team uses a different process. Flower Mound PSAT team teacher Jill Barclay said their PSAT team program has more students in it than any other in the district, just under 200. She said students are aware of the test by the time they are freshmen, if not earlier.

“We have kids ‘prepping’ just to make sure they qualify for the team in their sophomore year,” Barclay said. “It has become very competitive as we max out on how many students we have room for on the team.”

They take a total of nine practice tests as a part of their PSAT program, five full-length SATS in addition to four full-length PSATS. Flower Mound senior Sanjana Puri said the nine tests make her peers very comfortable with the test material.

“Students need to practice applying their critical thinking to different problems much more than they need to memorize general facts to prepare,” Puri said. “Practice makes perfect as the saying goes, and the PSAT team’s use of numerous practice exams recognizes this idiom.”

Flower Mound also has a differently formatted summer session during which Barclay said their teaching staff tries hard to create a team atmosphere. During the mandatory week-long summer session, students play games to become acquainted with one another and are rewarded with a Subway party at the end.

During the fall, different PSAT classes at FMHS compete with each other for best scores on math, reading and writing sections of each of the practice tests.

The teams’ accomplishments are celebrated on the announcements and at pep rallies. Most students, Barclay said, take the class very seriously.

“We remind them often that we wouldn’t have any trouble finding someone else who would be more than willing to take their spot on the team,” Barclay said. “But seriously, these kids know how potentially rewarding doing well can be, so they are usually pretty self-motivated.”

That competitive and celebratory atmosphere, Bertocci notes, is to Flower Mound’s advantage.

“If you’re around people who are really motivated and really intellectual, you are automatically going to get that bump,” Bertocci said. “It might just be if you’re around people that don’t really care that much, then it’s going to make you not care.”

The attitude of Marcus students towards the PSAT team is not as motivated, Bertocci said. She said some of her peers did not seem to care about the class.

“I heard that (the class) was useless, stupid and a waste of their time, but I think that… it didn’t really matter to them,” Bertocci said.

Glidewell said that most Marcus students have also not taken advantage of their resources, like the “My Road” on the College Board website, like they are encouraged to do. This program allows students to analyze the mistakes and weaknesses of their sophomore year PSAT and practice those shortcomings.

“That’s going to be one of our goals this year, to do a better job of acquainting the students and their parents with those resources,” Glidewell said.

In order to raise interest about National Merit Scholarships and the PSAT, Principal Gary Shafferman is visiting all middle schools and talking to students.

All PSAT teachers in the district meet during the year and share information. That has led to growth among all LISD PSAT teams, Barclay said.

“Hopefully this years’ tenth graders will take advantage of all the stuff that is out there, get on board and do well,” Glidewell said.