Timothy Gile is a senior at Morris Community High School.
On top of the four Advanced Placement classes and one Honors class he is taking, Gile is also involved in Spanish Club, Mathletes and Construction Club and is a member of the bass fishing team. That’s not all. Gile also has an internship at Friends of Sue Rezin during the week and works weekends at Kayak Morris.
Even with school, clubs and work, however, Gile still managed to do something few students can brag about.
He scored a 36 on the ACT test.
The ACT is a national college admissions examination that consists of subject area tests in English, Math, Reading, Science and an optional writing assignment. The nation’s average ACT score is a 21. Thirty-six is a perfect score.
For a student whose top college choices are University of Illinois, Vanderbilt and Duke, where he plans to study mechanical engineering, the score will be a great addition to Gile’s college application.
“I just didn’t believe it,” Gile said when asked about his reaction to the score, and when he called his parents to relay the news, they couldn’t either.
Craig Ortiz, math teacher at MCHS and one of Gile’s instructors, said, “I was very excited for Tim and proud of him when he let me know about his perfect score! He is someone who catches on to difficult concepts very quickly, and he knows how to explain things to others in an understandable way. I really enjoy teaching him, and I have no doubt that he will succeed in any career path he chooses.”
Gile took the ACT two times, and recommends that process to future test takers. Taking the test twice allowed him to target the areas he knew he needed to work on after receiving his results from the first test.
“Time management is key,” Gile said.
After running out of time during his first attempt and filling in random answers for the last few questions, Gile went into the second attempt knowing he needed to keep a better eye on time. He finished the second ACT with enough time to go back and check his answers.
“It is without a doubt an amazing feat for any student to be fully prepared for all that any elite score on the ACT requires,” MCHS Principal Kelly Hussey said.
“However, for any student to achieve perfection is a testament to personal effort combined with the tireless work of every teacher along the way; especially his first teachers, his mother and father. My congratulations to Tim for demonstrating what most who have worked with him knew all along; that he is a young man with many talents.”
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ACT FACTS
• The ACT is taken in all 50 states and has been since 1960.
• Each of the four required ACT subject area tests is multiple choice in format.
• Each of the four required ACT subject area tests is scored on a scale of 1–36.
• Fewer than one-tenth of 1 percent of students who take the ACT earn a top score of 36.
• All four-year colleges and universities across the United States accept ACT scores.
Source: ACT.org
