The only person who seemed to be surprised by the news was 16 year-old, Darius Washington.

  Darius was confident that he did well on the ACT but he never imagined earning a perfect score.

He was eager to know his results, so he went online to check his score and to his surprise he scored 36, a rare feat.

His Assistant Principle, Whitney Martin, at Neville High School was not at all surprised.

“We are not surprised, but we are very proud.” Of course his parents and classmates share in the excitement!

Sonia Washington, Darius’ mom, said this was not his first time taking the ACT. He took the ACT for the first time in seventh grade as a part of Duke University’s Gifted Identification Program. He took it again in ninth and tenth grade were he scored a 32 and 33 consecutively.

Darius shared some advice to students planning to take the ACT soon, “Manage your time wisely because if you run out of time that directly affects your score. If you don’t get to questions, then you can’t answer them.” Getting an opportunity to answer every question is important!

Darius is from Monroe, Louisiana and plans on attending there as well at the University of Louisiana majoring in computer science.