Paris High School student gets perfect ACT score

PARIS, Texas (KXII) - Preston Thompson expected to get a good test score, and exceeded his expectations by achieving a rare accomplishment of getting the highest score possible on the ACT.

According to the Associated Press in 2022, the average ACT test score was the lowest in more than 30 years. This revealed a decline in preparedness for college-level coursework.

Those stats didn’t discourage Preston Thompson who prepared to hit a home run on the exam. When it was time for him to take the ACT, he beat the odds. Thompson says he “was a little apprehensive, but confident that [he] was going to score well,” but the results are extraordinary.

Thompson says he spent most of his spring break completing three practice ACT tests. He says the practice test and the actual ACT were similar, and each time he took the practice test he did better than before, and overall he did better on the actual ACT.

When taking the ACT, Thompson says he breezed through it, but there was a small hurdle, the reading section was no easy feat. He overcame the challenge, saying he “got a lot better at understanding the type of questions and the type of answers,” leading him to get all the questions right in the reading section, and he even had time at the end of the test to go over his work.

Thompson was at school when he found out from someone that the scores had been released online. He checked his scores and says he was happy to see the “36,” a perfect score.

Thompson says the teachers from his AP and Dual credit classes helped prepare him for the test, as well as his extra-curricular activities like robotics, computer science, UIL, marching band, future problem solving, and various other activities. He also competes in math UIL and science UIL where he studies math and science.

Thompson shared the news with his mom through text message. She says she knew he would do well but she was surprised and proud of the perfect score that he received.

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