Champlin Park High School junior gets perfect score on ACT
Jada Thomson, a junior at Champlin Park High School (CPHS), has achieved what very few students nationwide are able to achieve: a perfect score on the ACT test.
In fact, according to a report by the ACT organization, only 0.136 percent of students in the country got a perfect score of 36 on the college entrance exam in 2017. And Thomson is likely the first student ever to get a perfect score in her school’s history, said Pam Baker, career and college specialist at CPHS.
“I don’t think we’ve ever had a student get a perfect score. Not in my memory, at least, and I’ve been here 20 years,” Baker said. “I really think she’s the very first.”
Thomson said that while her goal had always been to score a 36, no one was more surprised than she that she actually did it.
“It’s kind of crazy. I did not think I was going to get it at all,” she said. “We have to wait for two weeks for our score, and they come out at midnight, so I decided to stay up to see it. I actually screamed a little bit because I was really surprised. I had no idea.”
Her mom, Heidi Miller, had much the same reaction.
“Jada was in her bedroom down the hall, and she texted me that she got a perfect score. And I screamed. I was ecstatic,” said Miller, an administrator at Anoka-Hennepin’s Rum River and Madison elementary schools.
The second time was the charm for Thomson, who scored 32 the first time she took the test.
“That was the absolute minimum score I was going to be OK with getting. I wanted to do better, so I just decided to take it again,” she said. “I was planning to take it a third time, but ended up not needing to.”
Thomson said she prepared for the test by studying the Kaplan ACT book and taking practice quizzes, and using the Naviance app provided by her school. Her English teacher, Georgia Larson, also included 20-minute class lessons on the English section of the test once a week, and she worked with Thomson to better prepare her after she scored lowest on the English section the first time.
Larson said Thomson is a driven, talented, smart student, a good critical thinker, and a solid writer.
“There’s no question in my mind that Jada prepared for that test – she’s devoted in that way to her academics,” she said. “And she’s a quiet presence. She’s never boastful. She’s so understated about her capabilities.”
Thomson said she’s always been an ambitious and dedicated student, taking the most challenging classes she can and maintaining straight As. And she’s had her sights set on going to Harvard since she was in second grade.
“I’m very hard-working and driven,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to go to a very good college, so I’ve been preparing in every way to do that. I do the best work that I can.”
Thomson is enrolled in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program, a rigorous international college-preparatory program that emphasizes creative critical thinking and helps students earn college credits. She’s also involved in Knowledge Bowl, Model U.N., Leo Club and National Honor Society.
And in her downtime? “I love to read. Right now I’m reading War and Peace,” she said. “I just do a lot of normal teen things, like hang out with friends all the time, watch Netflix. Pretty typical.”
Thomson said she plans to go to medical school after college to become an infectious disease specialist, a career that she learned about when her dad became seriously ill from a potentially dangerous form of Strep.
“I’ve always wanted to be a doctor because I’ve always wanted to help people,” she said. “Throughout the whole process with my dad they were meeting with an infectious disease specialist, so I researched it more and just found it really interesting. It’s a lot of problem-solving and dealing with rare diseases and trying to figure out how to target them.”
While Harvard is still her ultimate goal – she’ll be visiting the campus this summer – Thomson said she plans to apply to about seven colleges next year, including her second choice, Princeton. And although a perfect ACT score certainly helps, it’s not the be-all and end-all of the application process.
“In reality, I still have to do all the same work I did before, I still have to keep up my GPA, still do extracurricular activities,” she said. “It’s just one part of the application process.”
But the thrill hasn’t yet abated for her mom, who said she’s been “extra excited.”
“I’m very proud. Proud of who she is as an all-around person, and then of course proud of her achievement,” she said. “I think she has a really bright future ahead of her.”