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Two Peters Township High School students earn perfect ACT scores

By Jon Andreassi staff Writer jandreassi@observer-Reporter.Com 3 min read
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Only about 0.3% of all students who took the ACT in 2021 earned a perfect composite score of 36.

That comes out to 4,055 perfect scores of the nearly 1.3 million students who took the test. It would be rare for even a single student in any given district to get a 36, let alone two.

But it happened in Peters Township.

Both Raegan Herdman and Sydney Shock can count themselves among the small percentage of perfect ACT test takers. Herdman, a senior, was one of the 4,000 who earned a 36 in 2021. Shock, a junior, took her test over the summer.

Like the SAT, the ACT is used for college admissions. Students are scored from 1 to 36 in four sections – English, math, reading and scientific reasoning. The final score is the average of those four scores.

“I saw the 36, and I was like, ‘Yes, I know it’s out of 36, but what did I actually get?’ and then I realized I had gotten a 36,” Herdman said. “I was in study hall at the time. So I got a hall pass and called my mom. She was convinced I was joking and she told me to stop lying.”

Shock was at home when she received the email informing her of her score.

“I ran upstairs to find my mom. It was just really exciting, because I got it in the summer before my junior year, so I’m just done now,” Shock said, referring to the fact she does not need to retake the test.

Shelly Belcher, the district’s communications coordinator, has spent 15 years of her more than two decades in education in Peters Township. She can remember two perfect SAT scores and a perfect ACT score coming in the same year about 10 years ago.

“This is an anomaly. It’s an impressive accomplishment,” Belcher said.

Herdman said she took practice tests to prepare for the ACT, making notes of her mistakes.

“That really helped a lot. I kept highlighting the problems I missed, looked for connections. If I found a topic I wasn’t good at, I just went and reviewed. Other than that, the hardest thing was just trying to keep my anxiety in check throughout the test,” Herdman said.

Shock did not do much studying other than some practice tests for her ACT prior to getting a perfect score.

“When I started my ACT prep, the first practice test I took I’m pretty sure I got a 35 on it. So I just did a couple more and went into the test,” Shock said.

Both girls are hoping to pursue science-related careers. Herdman has not decided where she will go to college, but has applied to The College of Wooster, the University of Virginia and the University of Vermont.

While it is early for Shock to be applying to colleges, she said she hopes to be recruited for track and field.

Herdman said getting a 36 on her ACT was a major confidence boost.

“It really made me feel like I could do pretty much anything I set my mind to,” Herdman said. “Calculus is still hard, but it’s kind of like whenever I get something wrong, I don’t take it personally. I still realize that this is part of learning and I have to struggle to get better.”

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