Freshman at Glasgow High School posts perfect ACT score

GLASGOW, Ky. – Most people remember having to take the dreaded ACT in high school, a standardized test used for college admissions.

Not many students come close to getting a perfect score, except for Caleb West, a student at Glasgow High School.

Caleb West – Freshman at Glasgow High School

West, a freshman at the school, scored a perfect 36 after taking the ACT in December. He scored a 36 on the individual tests in English, science, reading, and a 35 in mathematics.

“I received an email from WKU stating that my scores were in and I had a 36,” West said in a school press release. “I didn’t believe it at first. It wasn’t until I logged into my ACT account to verify my score that the reality of it sank in.”

According to ACT, just over 1.9 million students took the test in 2018, and less than 1 percent of those students scored a 36.

West previously took the ACT as a seventh grader and scored a 29. Two years later, he’s hit the top mark, and that didn’t come as a surprise to any of his teachers.

“Caleb is an incredibly hard worker who always pushes himself to the highest level,” said Morgan Cossel, West’s English I teacher.

“Educators are tasked with helping students develop tools necessary for success,” said West’s Honors Science teacher Shane London. “Sometimes we get the privilege of teaching students who already possess those skills. One student who comes to mind in Caleb. I truly look forward to seeing what the future holds for this young man.”

That future might include West attending either Carnegie Mellon or MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) where he’d like to major in computer science and engineering. At least, those are his goals for now.

West isn’t planning on taking the ACT again until his junior year, but added that next time he does, he’s aiming to get a 36 on all four sections of the test.