When Sophie Shoemaker texted her mother to tell her she’d achieved a perfect score on her ACT exam, Cherie Shoemaker thought she was one of a few at Camas High School to earn it.
“I just replied back in the usual fashion, ‘That’s amazing!’ and ‘That’s my girl, good job!’ thinking she was probably one of five or 10 other students from Camas who got a 36,” Cherie said.
Then came the official letter from ACT, the college testing organization.
“The letter said she achieved something that less than one-tenth of one percent of all test takers achieve,” Cherie said. “Wow! That’s our Sophie! I’m getting her a T-shirt that says: ‘I’m part of the 1/10 of the 1%'”
Among test takers in the high school graduating class of 2013, only 1,162 of 1.8 million students earned a composite score of 36, according to the ACT.
Sophie will be a senior at Camas High School in the fall.
“When I opened the email, I saw the 36 but didn’t think that could be my score so I scanned the email to find my score to finally realize I had a perfect score,” she said. “(It was) disbelief, but awesome. I was happy because I did study hard for the test and it paid off. I hope it will help open some doors for me when I start applying to schools in the fall.”