Student reaches perfect on ACT

Score of 36 hit 2nd time around

Yeongwoo Hwang of Jonesboro took the ACT college entrance exam for the first time last summer after purchasing and going through a practice book. He also took a practice course offered through his home-school program.

He scored a 35 — one point shy of a perfect score.

Hwa n g moved on. He enrolled at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs. And in January, midway through the school year, he decided to take the ACT exam a second time.

He wanted to attain a score on the optional writing part of the test that he did not take the first goaround. He said he didn’t have as much time to practice for the second test because of class work.

“When I went into the test the second time I wasn’t as focused as I was the first time on the actual subject areas because I knew I had a 35,” he recalled.

“I wasn’t as worried. I was mainly focusing on just the essays. When I exited the test, I felt I had done pretty well on all the parts. I felt the ACT was easier the second time, probably because I was more confident and I had already taken it. I felt pretty good about it.”

Hwang, a 16- year- old junior, earned the top composite score of 36, his school announced.

Less than one-tenth of 1 percent of students who take the ACT earn the top score, according to the ACT.

For the recently graduated Class of 2012, a total of 781 of the more than 1.66 million test-takers in the nation earned a 36 while 4,457 earned a 35.

In Arkansas, only six students in the Class of 2012 earned a 36 composite score out of the 26,058 test-takers in that class. Each of the four sections of the exam — English, math, reading and science — is graded on a 1 to 36 scale. The four sections are averaged together for the composite score.

Hwang said he missed only one question in the subject area exams and that was on the English part of the test, which still gave him a 36 on that section. He intends to take the ACT again. He wants to raise his score on the writing part of the test. On that section, a student must write an essay on a topic presented during the test.

Hwang, who moved to the United States from Korea at age 3, attended elementary school in several states. He was home-schooled in grades eight through 10. His mother, Kyoungsuk Ahn, is a homemaker. His father, Yeonsang Hwang, is a civil-engineering professor at Arkansas State University’s Jonesboro campus. After graduating from high school, Yeongwoo Hwang plans to major in computer science in college. His college preferences are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University.

In the meantime, the high school junior who is known around his Hot Springs campus for his colorful athletic shoes — first an orange pair and now red — will continue to enjoy the Arkansas math, science and arts school where he is a member of the student government association and the Beta Club, as well as part of the school’s competitive robotics program.

Bill Currier, dean of students at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts, estimated that the residential school for talented juniors and seniors averages one student per year who earns a 36 on the college entrance exam, with greater numbers earning 34s and 35s.

Hwang