Kansas teen perfect on SAT, ACT

[Glenn]

What makes you retake it after getting 32 and 34? A desire to be the subject of a Yahoo story?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060818/...s/pair_of_aces

Kansas teen perfect on SAT, ACT

WICHITA, Kan. - A teenager has achieved a rare feat: perfect scores on both the American College Testing exam and the SAT.

Jakub Voboril, 17, a senior at Bishop Carroll High School, learned last month that he had scored a 36 on his ACT, which he took in June. His perfect score, one of only two in Kansas on the June test, came after he scored 32 and 34 on his first two tries.

"Part of me said, 'That's good enough. You can stop there,'" he said. "But I decided to take it one more time to see what happened."

He took the SAT the same week. Those results — a perfect 2400 — came in shortly after he got his ACT scores.

Voboril comes from good genes: his two older sisters were high school valedictorians. He hasn't settled on a college or major, but has considered math, philosophy and law, possibly at the University of Notre Dame or Princeton.

He said he didn't have an answer for how he scored so well.

"It's weird, because before I took it, I checked out a couple books from the library. I expected there to be this big secret that all the smart people had that I just had to read.

"But I found out there's not a secret formula. Obviously, you have to pay attention in classes, take classes that are going to teach you what you need to know — that sort of thing."

No statistics are available on how many students have aced both tests, but it's a safe bet Voboril doesn't have a lot of company.

"Suffice it to say, it's a very, very small number," said Brian O'Reilly, a spokesman for the College Board, which administers the SAT.

[Fool]

Voboril comes from good genes: his two older sisters were high school valedictorians. He hasn't settled on a college or major, but has considered math, philosophy and law, possibly at the University of Notre Dame or Princeton.

Are they trying to imply that he was birthed from his two older sisters? I didn't think Kansas had that kind of reputation.

[Glenn]

How wild would it be if this kid joins here and starts posting?


EDIT: Maybe he could come up with some good Sheed trades.

[Fool]

If I've just cracked the code that he's imbred I don't think he'll show up.

[Glenn]

There's a joke there but I'll let it go to someone else, as it would be in poor taste.

[b-diddy]

since when does the sat go up to 2400? i never took it, but i thought the max was 1600.

i smell a rat. kansas must be pretty desperate to shed the label of 'the inbred state' to add 800 points onto a sat score.

[Uncle Mxy]

The SAT going up to 2400 is a recent change -- a writing section was added.

For that matter, the ACT didn't always go to 36. The 4 tests used to have slightly different weights (33, 34, 35, 36), with the highest score you could get being a 35 (rounded up from 34.5).

[UxKa]

its not impossible, tough yes, impossible no. i aced two sections of the ACT, english and math. the english part was pathetically easy... pick the shortest sensible answer. if its correct and not wordy, its what they are looking for. for the record, 34 overall... and it was after i dropped out of highschool and before i got my diploma. i was only 16 yrs old when i took the test, and at the time only had a freshman education. i never took the SAT, didnt believe in it then and dont believe in it now. its culturally biased and not a true measure of intelligence. kudos to the kid though, must have been studying his ass off.

[cruscott35]

Yeah, those red state cats sure are idiots.

[Uncle Mxy]

Yeah, those red state cats sure are idiots.

Isn't that why so many of those "top colleges" are in blue states? I agree that the red states are smarter inasmuch as they've managed to get the blue states tax dollars to flow their way -- obviously lower test scores mean folks who feel they need more entitlement. <laughs> But why politicize this? Sheesh...

As a standardized test jock and hypercompetitive bastard in my youth (some perfect scores on SAT/ACT tests, #1 in class, National Merit, yadda yadda yadda), I've long been amused at just how bad the correlation between the SATs and other performance metrics (college GPA, salary and management stats, etc.) is. The K-12 academic standardized tests mostly how well one takes standardized tests and how much money one's parents have. For most "brightest and best" definitions, the folks that claim to want such people would have better luck picking names out of a hat of self-selected good students.