3 seniors ace the ACT with perfect score of 36

They might not know what they want to be when they grow up, but one thing's certain: They'll probably have no trouble getting into a good college to figure it out.

Three Utah high school seniors have earned perfect scores on the ACT college entrance test, which they took last June.

Alex J. Hanson of Olympus High, Kimberly Richardson of Weber High and Andy Dahl of Logan High are among 177 students in the country to achieve the perfect 36 composite score.

The national average composite was 21.2, ACT reports. About 6,000 Utah students, and 395,000 nationwide, took the June 9 exam.

"I was really excited, danced around the kitchen a bit," Richardson said. After netting a 34 (sans optional writing portion) as a sophomore, she said, "I was hoping for a 35 at most."

All three students have 4.0 GPAs and are looking to enter Ivy League schools. They also are involved in school activities and take a heavy dose of Advanced Placement and other classes for college credit.

Richardson, also a semifinalist for a National Merit Scholarship, is taking AP government, AP chemistry and AP literature; last year, she packed her schedule with AP psychology, AP calculus, AP biology and AP American history.

Hanson takes AP European history at Olympus, then goes to the University of Utah for partial differential equations and philosophy. Those are the only classes he has left to fulfill, after piling on classes nonstop, even in summer, since his sophomore year. He also is involved in debate and is working on an Eagle Scout project.

"This semester is becoming kind of a break for me," said Hanson, son of Sherri and Boyd Hanson of Taylorsville, who hopes to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and study engineering or physics.

Rigorous classes best help students prepare for the ACT and help determine success in college, studies have shown.

"I think that anybody can do really well; they just have to have the focus to push themselves as hard as they can," said Richardson, daughter of Jennifer and Thomas Richardson. "If you work at it and really want it, you really can get what you want."

The exam measures English, math, reading and science reasoning. Students can, and often do, take it more than once in hopes of bettering their scores and catching the eye of more selective universities.

But a few, such as Dahl, make a hole-in-one.