Leah Baxter
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Leah Baxter, a 17-year-old senior at Girls Preparatory School, is one of about 2,200 American students this year to make a perfect 36 on the ACT.
So, what's the key to acing the college entrance exam?
Leah thinks for a second - "hmm" - and then offers: "Be on the lookout for dangling modifiers. I am highly attuned to dangling modifiers."
I can almost hear the grammarians out there cheering.
Dangling modifiers pop up often on standardized tests, Leah avows. And she should know. She has taken the ACT twice and the SAT three times.
A perfect score of 36 on the ACT is a rare accomplishment; a testament to studiousness and mental focus mixed with a dash of good fortune. A perfect score can open doors to top colleges and send a student on a life-altering academic trajectory.
For even the smartest kids, however, answers to a few of the end-of-book ACT questions are often just educated guesses. Leah made a 34 the first time she took the ACT, and she felt no smarter or better prepared the second time when she got the perfect 36, she says. She studied only about 30 minutes for the test, she says, just a little brush up on science.
Leah took the ACT for the second time in September and got her eye-popping results online a few weeks later. Some of her friends stayed up until after midnight one night to see their scores posted, but Leah waited until the next morning. She admits feeling a rush of excitement when she woke up and discovered the score. She immediately texted her twin sister, Lori, but otherwise kept the ACT news to herself. (Both sisters were named National Merit Scholarship semi-finalists earlier this year.)
Acing the ACT can also be a little discomforting if you let your mind wander: What will other people think? Will they be supportive? Will they be jealous?
Maybe that's why Leah let word of her top score spread organically, through a newspaper report and other people's social media accounts. The last thing Leah wanted was for anyone to think she was so full of herself that she needed to broadcast her accomplishment.
"I didn't want to be THAT person," Leah says. "But everyone was nice. No one was rude."
For now, Leah is not sure how she will leverage her 36. She is in the process of applying for "early decision" status to her No. 1 choice of colleges, but she has other applications in the wings. She is also one of the leading candidates to become the valedictorian at GPS this year, although she says there are other smart girls who may yet edge her out.
Beyond her caution about dangling modifiers, we asked Leah for her best advice for middle-schoolers thinking ahead to taking the SAT and ACT.
"Just pay attention in class, and learn the material they are trying to teach you," Leah advises.
Also, years of standardized testing can help you "get in the zone" during a test, says Leah, who admits to being easily distracted.
Leah says she's not sure what will be her major in college, although she is drawn to the humanities, specifically literature and philosophy.
"Or I could just become a serial student," she says. "But that could be expensive."
At the end of our interview at GPS, Leah showed me to my car. As she walked away and turned a corner, she took a couple of skip steps, a faint echo of elementary school.
Big brain, light heart.
That's a winning combination.
To suggest a human-interest topic, contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfree press.com or 423-645-8937.