When Justin Coleman told friends he’d earned a perfect ACT composite score, the reaction was typical of many high school conversations when test scores are released.
“One of them said they hate me,” said Coleman, the 17-year-old Lassiter High School senior.
Thankfully they were just joking, but lots of students could be envious.
On average, less than a tenth of 1 percent of test takers earn a composite score of 36, according to a news release from the ACT. Out of the nearly 2.1 million 2016 graduates who took the test just 2,235 earned the top score.
The exam is comprised of sections testing English, math, reading and science. The average of those four scores create the composite. There’s a writing section that isn’t included in the composite number. Coleman wasn’t a fan of the writing portion and said he couldn’t remember his score.
Last year, Cobb's high schools had an average composite score of 22.6, slightly higher than the 21.1 statewide average.
Coleman the mathlete — he's a member of Lassiter's Math Team — aced the reading and English sections, while coming up just a bit short with scores of 35 in science and math.
He’d taken the ACT twice before. Once in seventh grade, when he got a 28, a score that earned him an award he accepted at Duke University, and another time as a sophomore when he earned a 33.
This go-around he took a single practice exam, doing each of the four sections on different days. That amounts to four hours of studying.
He said he thought he was doing well while he was taking the exam but had no clue.
Talking to his mother after the test, “I told her it was fine.”
When not studying for a mind-boggling ACT score, Coleman is also part of the fencing squad and a member of the school’s Academic Team — think buzzers and questions from all subjects.
A couple of weeks after taking the exam in June, Coleman was instructed when to check the ACT website to see his score.
He was at school — taking a health class over the summer — when he pulled up the website on his phone.
“I was happy that I did better than I did before,” he said.
Senior year for some students brings the time-honored sweating over college applications, but a perfect ACT score doesn’t hurt either.
“I think it will improve my chances, but for most of (the colleges where he’s applied) it’s still pretty hard to get in,” said Coleman, who plans to study physics.
That’s true when you’re applying to Georgia Tech, MIT, Caltech “and maybe Princeton.”
By the way, Coleman scored 1,540 out of 1,600 on his SAT.
Visit The AJC's Ultimate Atlanta School Guide for information on Georgia schools, including which schools are the safest, how many years of experience the average teacher has and which schools have the highest SAT and graduation scores.
In other Cobb School news:
About the Author
