Deerfield Student Rocks ACT, Gets Perfect Score

To most people, 36 is just another number.  For Kerry Glass, a junior at , 36 represents a dream come true.

Glass recently found out she obtained a perfect score, a composite 36, on her ACT exam.  She checked her score online. “I started screaming,” Glass said. She said her dad called out to her to find out what was wrong. “It took a couple of seconds to register,” she said.

A high achiever in both academics and athletics, Glass said she was actually hoping for a 36. She has her sights set on universities that require high scores, including Notre Dame, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Northwestern University. “I needed to get a good score,” Glass said. Among test takers in the high school graduating class of 2010, only 588 students of nearly 1.6 million students earned a composite 36.

Glass attributes her high score primarily to her love of math and reading, as well as an affinity for multiple language tests. She also said a DHS course in ACT study strategies helped her out. “I did better on the later tests,” she said. Glass said she felt confident after taking the test, and thought it was easier than the practice tests had been.

After taking her ACT, Glass went to basketball practice with other teammates who’d just taken the test. She said her basketball coach joked, “So you’re all getting 36s, right?” At DHS, Glass is not only a varsity basketball player, but also a varsity volleyball and soccer player.

Sports, as well as academics, have long played an important role in Glass’ life, she said. She attended elementary and junior high school at  in Deerfield, where she began playing organized sports early.  She said that early introduction into time management helped her learn that not much of her time could be spent slacking off. “When you spend so much time in sports, there is less time to spend at the computer doing whatever you want,” Glass said.  “You have to get everything done,” and she learned to do that early on, she said. 

Even if there aren’t any secret weapons to conquering the ACT, she said a good meal before helped. Her mom made her pancakes and sausage that morning. “You definitely need a good breakfast before the ACT,” she said.