There’s more to a good education than a test score, but if scores on college admissions tests like the ACT can predict success in college, 184 of more than 158,000 Illinois graduates of the Class of 2014 who took the ACT are looking at college perfection, the Chicago Tribune reports.
Nationwide, just over 1,400 students who graduated in 2014 got a perfect score of 36 on the test, out of more than 1.8 million students who took it.
Scores for the Class of 2015 are still coming in and won’t be officially released until this summer, according to an ACT spokeswoman quoted in the article. However, a few students have already received their perfect scores, as most students take the ACT in the spring of their junior year. Two perfect-score juniors, from the Illinois Class of 2016, are Alexander Lettenberger of Glenbard West High School and TJ Wiegman of Wheaton North High School.
“My mom was looking at me kind of funny because I got a big grin on my face,” Mr Wiegman, 17, was quoted as saying, describing the time when ACT recognized his perfect score. “Then I high-fived her and told her I got a 36.”
Michael Wilkins and Alexander Novy, juniors at Geneva High School, also got perfect scores, according to the Tribune.
The ACT used to be a high school graduation requirement for all Illinois students, mandated by the Illinois State Board of Education as part of its collection of standardized tests that ensure compliance with and accountability under federal law. But the ISBE is switching to a new collection of tests, those from the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career, or PARCC, and other testing companies, and last summer dropped the ACT requirement. The four-subject test is an important part of the college application process, though.
A perfect score is evidence of hard work in high school and the stamina it will take in college to succeed. It also comes with a little bit of luck, I suppose, but good luck tends to follow those who are prepared. Congratulations to the hundreds of students across the country who received perfect scores on this college admission test.
