Taking the Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test for the third and final time was the charm for Nathaniel Bauman and Mark Shoemaker.

The Trinity Lutheran High School students, who were juniors when they took the test in the fall of 2017, had increased their score the second time and put in the work to do it again.

The result: Bauman was named a finalist in the National Merit Scholarship Program, and Shoemaker made the commended list.

Bauman is among the top 15,000 in the country and is Trinity’s first finalist. Last year, he was named Trinity’s first semifinalist, and he submitted paperwork for the National Merit Scholarship Program in the fall. The finalists recently were announced, and the National Merit Scholarship winners will be announced between April and July.

“I’m thrilled,” said Bauman, who is now a senior. “I had hoped that I would become a finalist, as well. It’s a huge honor. I’m really surprised that I achieved it.”

More than 90 percent of the semifinalists attained finalist standing, and about half of the finalists will win a National Merit Scholarship, earning the merit scholar title, according to a news release from National Merit Scholarship Corp.

More than 1.6 million juniors in about 22,000 high schools entered the 2019 National Merit Scholarship Program by taking the 2017 PSAT/NMSQT.

The test includes sections on reading, writing and language, math without a calculator and math with a calculator. Each one is timed, ranging from 25 to 60 minutes, and has nearly 20 to 50 questions apiece.

Students receive an evidence-based reading and writing score, a math score and a selection index score, which the National Merit Scholarship Corp. uses in its National Merit Scholarship Program. The selection index score is calculated by doubling the sum of the reading, writing and language and math test scores.

Lori Mores, the school counselor at Trinity, said the qualifying score changes from year to year for each state. If a lot of the scores are higher, the cutoff score is higher. If they are lower, they cutoff score is lower.

For Indiana, the cutoff score was 219, which was Bauman’s score.

Bauman credits part of his improvement to taking algebra II his sophomore year and precalculus his junior year.

“Our junior year, we were both in precal, which that’s about the highest math that is on the SAT, so this year, especially more than all of the others, we were more confident on the math sections,” Bauman said.

Shoemaker found success in math on the PSAT and SAT.

“I was a lot more confident on math because I remember I got a 750 on math (on the SAT), and the high score on that was 760, so I think I missed one or two math questions,” he said.

Also helpful to both students is the STAR curriculum at Trinity. STAR, which stands for skills, tutorials and resources, involves dividing up each class by grade level and once a week receiving targeted instruction on what’s appropriate for that grade.

For freshmen, it’s learning study, organizational, listening and communication skills as they transition to high school. For sophomores and juniors, it’s tutorials for test preparation, and juniors also get ready for college entrance exams. And for seniors, it’s resources, which involves college and scholarship applications and transitional material to help as they move on to college or a profession.

“I still say the STAR class helped tremendously. And then of course, just being in that high-level math class, it just in general helps out,” Bauman said.

“The STAR class helped a lot, but then I had also taken one full practice PSAT test, and that made me feel really prepared and confident for it,” Shoemaker said.

Shoemaker was happy to see his work on the PSAT also pay off with the SAT.

“I got a 1470 on that, so I was pleased with that because it shows (the PSAT score) was a good representation of my score,” he said. “I couldn’t really ask for much more because I made a huge jump sophomore to junior year. … I made over a 100-point jump.”

The seniors offered advice to underclassmen taking the PSAT.

“If you want to try to be a national merit finalist, just study, work hard, do the practice tests. It all helps,” Bauman said. “Then of course, just the PSAT in general and all of that practicing helps with the actual SAT, which can get you very substantial merit scholarships from really any college you go to.”

Shoemaker said students should take the PSAT seriously.

“You then have to later take the SAT and ACT very seriously, as well, because that’s what actually gets you into college,” he said. “My score on PSAT doesn’t get me into college. It prepares me well for those tests.”

After high school, Bauman plans to attend Concordia University in Chicago and major in secondary education in hopes of teaching English or theology. He also may minor in ancient languages.

Shoemaker is a direct admit into the Indiana University Kelley School of Business, where he will study accounting and finance.