October is a month full of awards and tests for Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy students. One such test is the PSAT, which sophomores and juniors took on Oct. 16 in preparation for taking the SAT and ACT. If students do well on the exams, they can qualify to become National Merit Scholars. In fact, one senior this year might be able to reach that honor and two others also performed noticably well on the PSAT. Senior Alex Sher has been named a National Merit Semi-Finalist, and seniors Ben Haney and Matthew Kavanaugh have been named National Merit Commended Scholars for their scores on previously taken PSAT tests.

This is not the only good news for HBHA seniors, as six seniors have become AP Scholars as a result of their scores on AP exams. For sophomores, juniors and seniors, Sept. was full of tests and rewards.

Junior David Robinow took the PSAT for the first time this year, as last year he accidentally missed the exam. Despite this being his first time, Robinow felt confident and prepared for the exam.

“I thought it was fine, even though the test was a little long,” said Robinow. “It was very much worth [taking the exam] because it’s very good to learn how to take a standardized test. [However,] I was disappointed when we had to go to regular school afterwards.”

Robinow is not the only student who was upset about the school day after the PSAT. Sophomore Adena Goldberg was irked by the fact that she had to take a quiz after completing the standardized test.

“I had a quiz after [the PSAT] which was kind of frustrating,” Goldberg said. “But other than that, it went pretty smoothly. It was good practice for what’s to come in the future.”

Even though  Haney and Kavanaugh took the PSAT more than a year ago, they just received the award of National Merit Commended Scholars. Both Kavanaugh and Haney were glad to receive the award.

“It is nice to get the acknowledgement,” said Kavanaugh. “I believe that many other students [at HBHA] who just took the PSAT will be able to get the recommendation as well.”

Senior Jacob Pellegrino, along with five other seniors, received an AP Scholar designation for spectacular scores on multiple AP exams. Pellegrino felt honored to receive the award.

“I’m glad to see that the hard work I put into the AP classes paid off,” Pellegrino said. “I hope to do well on this year’s AP tests as well.”

The other seniors who earned the designation include Kavanaugh and Sher, along with  Jacob Margolies, Max Sosland and Sam Sosland.

Another round of testing has just been finished at HBHA and hopefully next year’s results will be just as full of rewards as this year’s.