Glenbard South Student Nabs Perfect ACT Score

It's a feat few high school students accomplish but one Glen Ellyn teen earned a perfect score on the American College Testing exam (ACT).

Andrew Bean, a junior at , earned the perfect composite score of 36 on the ACT, beating out 99 percent of all other high school test-takers, according to national ranks provided by ACT.

"I had been hoping I would get a 36 but you never really know because you have to get all the questions right," said Bean. 

To achieve a perfect score Bean credits his English teacher who prepared him for his least favorite portion. Bean, a math wiz, said the hardest part was the very first question of the test. He had to choose one vocabulary word out of four to best complete a sentence. The problem was Bean only knew two of the vocabulary words. From that first question on, Bean said it only got easier. 

Bean said a love of math must run in his family. One grandparent was a math teacher and his two parents both have engineering degrees. Bean wants to follow in those same footsteps and is hoping for admittance to MIT.  

And Bean may have a good chance, just last weekend he nabbed second place in the state math competition after missing the tie-breaker question. South's math team placed fourth overall in the state competition. But Bean isn't all math, all the time. He's a longtime member of the children's choir, Anima Singers, in addition to being in the school orchestra, science olympiad team, scholastic bowl and chess team. Bean is also an Eagle Scout.

One tip for taking the ACT, Bean said, is to pick the shortest answer when in doubt about an English question because it's usually the correct answer.