Westhampton Beach Student Earns Perfect ACT Score

WESTHAMPTON BEACH, NY — A Westhampton Beach High School junior joined the ranks of the very elite group of students who've earned a perfect ACT score.

Jane Paulson said that when she set out to take the ACT exam for the first time, she planned to use her results as a baseline to improve her score in the future.

"She was anxious and didn’t think she would do well on the college qualifying exam. Little did she know, she’d be in the top 0.03% of test takers in the country by earning a perfect score of 36," the Westhampton Beach Union Free School District said in a release.

Paulson said she prepared for the ACT by taking practice exams at home and in her junior seminar class. She reviewed her incorrect answers to ensure she didn’t make the same mistakes again. But when she took the actual exam, she said she left feeling less than confident — so her score came as a complete surprise.

“I wanted to do well, but couldn’t believe I got a perfect score,” she said.

Paulson plans to continue to explore college and future career options. When not studying for her classes, including four advanced placement courses, she a member of the Interact Club and is a member of the varsity softball team. She also volunteers with the Sunrise Movement, which aims to stop climate change.

Paulson is not the only Long Island student to earn the perfect ACT score this year.

Earlier in December, William Floyd High School official said that senior Farihah Chowdhury also received the "rare honor" of earning a 36 on the ACT, a standardized test consisting of English, mathematics, reading and science used for college admissions, the school district said.

According to the ACT organization, less than three-tenths of one percent of students who took the ACT exam earned a perfect score — and, for the graduating class of 2019, only 4,879 out of nearly 1.8 million graduates achieved the "academic feat," William Floyd school officials said.

The average score nationwide is 20.7; her score places the teens in the top 0.03% of students who took the ACT, the district said.