Home-schooled students shine in National Merit list

"It does feel good to see how I stacked up," said Mona Luxion, a 17-year-old Chicagoan who was named a semifinalist. Her family follows an "unschooling" philosophy, a child-directed model that doesn't try to recreate school at home. Before the PSAT, Mona had never taken a standardized test.

"The scores were sort of a surprise and a validation of home-schooling," she said. "Home-schooling has made me a better person. It gave me a love of learning. But I felt the good scores also showed that I had a quantitative measurement of what I'd learned."