Westbrook High School junior Kalin Lancaster was recently named a semifinalist for the 2008 Maine Leaderboard Top Student prize – a competition put on by SAT preparation program PrepMe. Lancaster, 17, received the prize because of his dedication to preparing himself for the SAT, which he took last month. On Monday, Lancaster sat down with the American Journal to talk about why he studied so hard and where he’d like to go to college.

Q: Why did you decide to use PrepMe to prepare for the SAT?

A: Other people use College Board. I liked PrepMe because of the setup. They had lessons and practice tests, and you could learn what you wanted to.

Q: How did you do on the SAT?

A: I haven’t looked at my score yet. I could find out a week ago, but I’m kind of nervous because other people I know didn’t score as high as they hoped they would. I’m really shooting for 1,800 to 1,900 (out of a possible 2,400). I got an 1,800 on the (preliminary) PSAT.

Q: What are your strengths and weaknesses on the test?

A: My strengths were the math section and some of the English sentences. My teachers helped me a lot. The essay, I had to work on. I was given a bunch of practice prompts by my teacher and the PrepMe.

Q: How much did you study before taking the test?

A: My parents stopped me from doing everything else for a couple weeks and made me do that. I would study for a full-blown couple hours at a time, take a half-hour break and keep studying. There are a lot of things to study up on that.

Q: What drove you to study so hard?

A: I knew that if I didn’t do well, I probably wouldn’t get into the college I want to, even if my grades are good.

Q: Do you know where you’d like to go to college yet?

A: I definitely want to go to Maine Maritime Academy up in Castine, Maine – population: 10. It has a lot of the courses I want to take, like engineering and oceanography. I like the ocean a lot and I definitely like earth science. Engineering is a way to apply that to a field.

Q: Do you know how high of a SAT score they look for in an applicant?

A: They look for a pretty high score, somewhere above a 1,600.

Q: Did you win anything for being a semifinalist in the PrepMe contest?

A: I get a ski pass to Sunday River, but I don’t ski. I’m trying to pawn it off on somebody right now. Anybody who wants it, it’s free.

Kalin Lancaster, a Westbrook High School juinor, hopes his time spent studying for the SAT will help him win a spot at Maine Martime Academy, when he applies next year.