Dist. 211 students honored for perfect ACT scores

Out of the 1.5 million students who take the ACT annually, only one in every 3,300 achieve a 36, the test’s highest possible composite score.

Six students Palatine-Schaumburg District 211 students were among them, and they recently were honored for the feat by the district’s board of education.

The high scoring seniors included Ryan Erdmann from Palatine High School and Scott Kirkwood, Jackson Mitzner, William Shih and Andrew Song from Fremd High School.

Mengran Liu from Hoffman Estates High School was not present, but has scored a 36 twice, once in February and again in April.

Superintendent Nancy Robb said the national average score on the ACT is 21.

Some of the students said the score came naturally.

“I didn’t do a lot of studying. I had a book but I didn’t really use it,” said Erdmann, who plans to attend the University of Illinois or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to study electrical engineering or computer science.

Kirkwood, who is interested in studying computer science and physics, chemistry or biology at an Ivy League school, had similar sentiments.

“I don’t like the ACT or SAT, so I didn’t study for it at all,” he said.

Some of the students said they were surprised when they got a perfect score.

“I was shocked,” said Mitzner, who plans to enter a premedical program at Stanford University or Harvard University. “I was just really excited and happy to get it.”

Shih, who has his eyes set on Georgetown University to major in international relations, was at a loss of words when he first received the news.

“It’s hard to describe that feeling,” he said. “I don’t think I fully realize it.”

Song fell right in the middle, saying he had confidence he did well but was still impressed.

“After the test I had that kind of like magical feeling when you know something went well,” he said, adding that he plans to study biology or biochemistry at Columbia University or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “It was surprising, but it was more of ‘I’m happy that I got what I hoped I did.’”