In this week’s edition of the “National Merit Semifinalist Spotlight,” we sit down with Christina Comino, one of the twelve MSMS seniors recognized by the College Board for outstanding performance on the PSAT.

Prior to attending the Mississippi School for Math and Science, Comino attended Sacred Heart High School in Hattiesburg.

“I had the chance to take the PSAT in 10th grade. I thought that I had done pretty well, so I didn’t do much test prep after that until the night before the PSAT last year when I took a math PSAT practice test. The test prep didn’t do me any good because it stressed me out and made me lose sleep, so I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Comino explained.

Although Comino had only been at MSMS for a short period of time before taking the PSAT, she believes that some of her classes contributed to her performance on the test.

“I was taking Foundations and Trig first semester, so I got a lot of math practice before the test,” Comino said.

Unlike many other students, Comino learned about the PSAT early on and had firsthand experience with the test.

“I was kind of lucky because I knew about the PSAT in ninth grade when my older sister had to take it, so I already knew that it was important and that it could determine a lot in terms of scholarships.  I also had the opportunity to take it in tenth grade at my old school, so I had a considerable amount of experience with the test before I took it last year.”

Outside of her classes at MSMS, Comino shared that she “really likes reading. That’s not really an interesting activity, but I’m reading the Divine Comedy right now and it’s fun. I really enjoy music. I play a little bit of piano and ukulele, though I’m not too great at either, and I love singing.  There are some hobbies that I don’t get to do much here because of how little time school allows, so when I’m home I like to cook and garden.”

She also reflected on a particular interest that she discovered through one of her classes she took during her junior year at MSMS.

“This one’s kind of strange, but last year while I was in Mr. Yarborough’s Tales from the Crypt class, I realized that I really liked doing historical research. Not really the big research on specific themes, but like the kind of research on a specific person, where you end up digging through tons of primary sources looking for little bits of information. I don’t know, I guess I liked it because all the information I worked so hard to find ended up fitting together kind of like a puzzle. I loved it. So I think when I find the time, I’m going to do some research like that, but with my family, you know, find some new information to add to our genealogy.”

Comino spoke on her plans for the future by stating that “In five years, I want to be starting my graduate degree and doing research on a biology topic that interests me, maybe something on gene therapy. It’s my favorite thing I’ve learned about in Biology.”

She closed our discussion with a few simple words of advice to future students taking the PSAT.

“Get lots sleep the night before and try not to stress.”