On final try, Har-Ber student earns perfect score on ACT

Reynolds

Reynolds

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

— Rahmlee Reynolds was on his fourth and last chance to take the ACT when he scored a perfect 36.

“I was going to keep trying until I ran out of chances or got a 36,” he said.

Reynolds, a senior at Har-Ber High School, is the first student at Har-Ber and the first in the district in at least 13 years, to earn a perfect score on the ACT, said Rick Schaeffer, district communications director. The ACT is a college admissions test.

Reynolds said he was competing with a few of his friends to see who could reach a perfect score first. They called it “the race to 36.” One of his friends was only one point away from getting a perfect score.

“Competitive aspects can make boring things amusing,” he said.

Earning a perfect score on the ACT is difficult, said Katie Wacker, a spokeswoman with ACT, the nonprofit organization that oversees the test. Out of the graduating class of 2013, 1.8 million people took the test, and 1,162 got a score of 36.

“It’s absolutely remarkable,” she said.

The ACT is supposed to be challenging, but what makes it difficult is the board range of subjects it covers, said Danny Brackett, Har-Ber principal. The test covers math, science, English and reading. Many times, students will do well in two of the subjects, but not as well in the other two.

Reynolds said the most challenging part of the ACT was how fast he had to answer the questions in the math section. He said mnemonic devices he learned in his math classes helped him answer problems more quickly. Mnemonic devices are strategies people use to retain knowledge.

Travis Fink, Advanced Placement calculus teacher at Har-Ber High, said he prepares students for the ACT by using the type of questions on the ACT as warm up questions.

The English section of the test is all about comprehension, said Katy Moore, Advanced Placement language and composition teacher at Har-Ber. She helps prepare her students for the ACT by teaching them analysis skills.

“It’s not about what we find in the text, it’s how the text works,” she said.

Scoring 36 also makes students more attractive to four-year universities, Wacker said. It indicates a readiness to succeed in college-level coursework.

Reynolds said he isn’t sure yet which college he wants to go to, but he knows he wants to go to an Ivy League school. He also doesn’t know what he wants to major in yet, but said he is interested in math, science, history and political science.

“I’m interested in mostly everything,” he said.