PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN 6) — A local high school student has made history with an extraordinary accomplishment — he got a perfect score on his ACT.
Jesuit High School junior Will Grimme, 16, said he’s just a typical teenager — he loves to ski and play video games. Grimme said he didn’t even study for the ACT, one of the two main college admissions exams.
“I don’t consider myself to be that studious,” Grimme said. “I don’t go home and study most nights. But, I guess I’ve always been pretty intelligent.”
His box of college possibilities is burgeoning and he recently toured five of his favorite schools.
Grimme said he was in shock when he first received news of his perfect ACT score. In all of Jesuit’s 60-year history, it has only happened twice before.
“You’ve earned the highest possible composite score of 36,” Grimme said, as he read his ACT score letter aloud. “Your achievement is significant and rare.”
Less than one-tenth of 1% of students who take the ACT in the country earn the top score. On average, people scored a 20.
“We’re incredibly proud to say the least,” Will’s mother Kim Grimme told KOIN 6 News.
She said her son skipped kindergarten, fourth grade and then entered high school when he was just 13.
“His motivation is intrinsic,” Kim said. “So we’re even more proud because it’s due to his hard work and nothing really that we’ve done.”
Grimme said he would like to study economics and someday attend law school in the hopes of becoming a judge. He said his secret to success is simple:
“I have prided myself on sticking through classes and work hard to get where I’ve wanted to go,” Grimme said.
Grimme also took the SAT last year and scored a 2140 out of 2400. He said he plans on taking it again this year to earn a higher score and hopefully land himself a scholarship.