Memorial High senior is one of only six in state to ace the ACT

Jeffery Song scored a perfect 36 on the ACT
photo by Stratford High intern Mackenzie Cash

Memorial High senior Jeffery Song wasn’t aiming for a perfect score when he rose early one Saturday morning last April to take the ACT Assessment college admission test.

Oddly, he was calm when he learned online later that he had earned a 36 – the highest score possible on the exam. It was his first try.

Members of the nation’s public high school graduating class of 2007 who took the ACT – a record 1.3 million students – earned an average composite score of 21.2 on the college admission and placement exam, up slightly from 21.1 last year, test officials report.

“I wasn’t expecting anything. I had studied hard for the SAT and so when I saw my SAT scores – Math, 780; Reading, 760; Writing, 780 – I was really excited,” he says. “To be honest, I wasn’t as excited about the ACT.”

He missed a perfect 2400 on the three-part SAT by only 80 points, putting him in the 99 percentile or above range. Now that his ACT score has become campus news, other people won’t let him forget. He grins. He had nothing to do with his sudden celebrity. “I never told anyone.”

A graduate of Spring Branch Middle and Memorial Drive Elementary schools, Jeffery is one of only six Texas students to achieve the highest possible ACT composite score. About 23,000 Texas high school students took the same test last April.

According to ACT officials, only 85 students in the nation tested as well as Jeffery. Nationally, about 446,000 students took the April ACT.

Jeffery earned 36’s in the math, science and writing portions of the test. With a 35, reading cost him a point. “I guess English is not my strong point. I’m a math and science person,” he says quite seriously.

He’s taken five Advanced Placement (AP) high school classes so far. He’s earned the highest possible grade of 5 on all five AP tests, making him eligible for college credits for his work.

This year, he plans to take four more AP classes. Jeffery is expected to be one of Memorial High’s co-valedictorians this year.

He’s not all work, no play, either. Trumpet section leader in the Memorial High Marching Band for two years, he has played in the band for four years. He is a member of Jazz Band, too, and enrolled in Debate to broaden his horizons even more this year.

An active member of the United Korean Church of Houston, a Presbyterian congregation located on Witte, he leads Bible studies and small groups there.

His parents, Young and Hye Song, came to America as adults. They have classic college-going dreams for him – Stanford or Harvard universities. Jeffery is applying to those two universities, as well as Rice University here and the University of Texas at Austin. “I want to challenge myself academically by going to these prestigious colleges,” Jeffery says.

He has visited South Korea twice, but feels most comfortable at home in Houston.

Where others with his ACT score might reflexively aim for professions like medicine, law or business, Jeffery is focusing on teaching and education as his career calling, whether at the high school, college or graduate education levels.

“I’m not sure, but I think that I want to teach. I need a career that will also be personally rewarding for me,” he says.

Jeffery attended kindergarten and first grade at Second Baptist School. His brother, Chris, is a 10th-grader at Memorial High.

posted 09-20-07