Will Davies

Will Davies is one of the two commended students being recognized in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship program here at Poland schools. Davies impressively placed among the top 50,000 scorers of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2021 competition by taking the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Will’s accomplishment has demonstrated his outstanding potential for academic success. 

Davies noted that being a National Merit Scholar is very honoring. 

Davies stated, “Knowing the difficulty of the achievement and being able to place in the top percentile, I feel very honored by it.” 

Davies prepared for the SAT more than he prepared for the ACT. 

Davies mentioned that, “I did about a month of preparation at most.” 

Davies has some helpful tips to get a good score on the ACT. 

Davies explained that, “A few tips I can offer is to not stress yourself out over questions, manage your time, and to get a healthy amount of sleep the night before.”

Davies did not find preparing hard, in fact, he said he found it simple. 

He commented, “I didn’t find any of the work preparing hard, maybe a little tedious because of how easy some questions seemed in the review book I used.” 

Davies explained that some good last minute study tips include “learning how to read graphs as well as recognize patterns in certain math problems.” 

The most difficult section on the test for Davies was the English section. Davies concluded that “the most difficult section for me was the English section but that just might be my opinion as I naturally perform better in math and science.”

Anthony Gallo

Anthony Gallo is one of the two commended students being recognized in the 2021 National Merit Scholarship program here at Poland schools. Gallo impressively placed among the top 50,000 scorers of more than 1.5 million students who entered the 2021 competition by taking the 2019 Preliminary SAT/National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test. Gallo’s accomplishment has demonstrated his outstanding potential for academic success. 

Gallo pointed out being a National Merit Scholar is “honestly a bit overwhelming; it’s very nice as something to put on a college application, but strange in that I don’t want people to look at me different because of how I did on a certain test.”

He said he spent more time preparing for the ACT than the SAT. 

Gallo mentioned, “Outside of common school work, I didn’t prepare much (if at all) for the PSAT, but studied a few hours a week for the ACT.” 

Gallo has some helpful tips to get a good score on the ACT. 

Gallo explained that, “I had a different strategy going into every section of the ACT, but the main factor was time management. Having knowledge of time and pace allowed me to answer the easy questions first, and single out the difficult ones for the end of each test, knowing that I was more likely to think of an answer for the harder problems while solving the easier ones which I was more likely to answer correctly.” 

He did not find it difficult to prepare for the ACT. 

Gallo commented, “I would say that the work I put in for the ACT was less than most, and overall not very difficult. Especially in math, I felt prepared through classes at PSHS.”  

Gallo explained that rather than studying, practicing problems consistently would be the most beneficial method. 

He noted, “Tests like the ACT are more endurance and focus than anything, so build up your mental endurance by taking smaller sections equivalent to the time you spend (for example, do 6 math problems in 10 minutes instead of 36 in 60). Keep increasing time and problems until you can focus and answer questions for the entire test.”

To close off, Gallo added, “Each section on the ACT were pretty similar in difficulty for me. It really just depends on your skillset.”