Results for the National Spanish Exam have been released with more than 40 students on campus receiving recognition for their scores. The NSE is a national marker for any student enrolled in a high school Spanish class who is wanting to gauge their knowledge of the language.

“I thought that our students did really well,” Spanish teacher Kirsten Kubic said. “We had one more national accolade than we did last year- and so what they received were: Honorable Mention, they could have gotten Bronze, Silver, or Gold- and so we had one more than last year which was great. And I think that it was really nice to see kids continually take the exam and doing well in it.”

One student who scored in the 90th percentile, freshman Austin Ma, shared his tip for getting a high score.

“I received Premio de Oro- a gold medal,” Ma said. “To prepare I looked at an old exam which I recommend to other students and I wanted to take it to see how well I have learned the material in Spanish class.”

Whether it’s for a test or class, Kibic says students aspiring to learn a new language should expose themselves to the language as much as possible.

“I would say, in class, to take advantage of everything they are doing,” Kubic said. “All the activities, but also the point of this test is to show their proficiency in the language. You can only do so much during the day- so you could be practicing outside of class- listening to radio shows, watching movies in Spanish, reading articles, things you see on the street, because the more you’re surrounded by a language, the more you will be able to understand it.”

Below is a list of award levels as well as the name of student’s who were honored and the recognition they received. 

• Premio de Oro ( Gold) 95th percentile or higher

• Premio de Plata (Silver) 85th – 94th percentile

• Premio de Bronce (Bronze) 75th – 84th percentile

• Mención Honorífica (Honorable Mention) 50th through the 74th percentile