Senior Naomi Samuel situated herself inside a tent at a track meet with an ACT book in her hands. It was the night before she would take the ACT for the second time and despite the pouring rain and the fact that she was at a track meet, she studied for the test.

Inside the tent, she started muttering to herself. She thought about certain grammatical rules and mnemonic devices as she took practice problems to help prepare for the test. After completing the ACT for the second time, she started checking the website constantly. One morning at school, she pulled up the ACT website to see that she earned a 36.

“I was super psyched and immediately turned to the person next to me like, ‘Look at this!’ and then I felt really bad because I realized that was really rude,” Samuel said.

Samuel, along with senior Emma Johanningsmeier, were the only two students from Westside to receive 36s on the ACT this year. Samuel and Johanningsmeier are also two out of 15 people in the state of Nebraska to have received perfect scores on the ACT, the SAT or both tests this year.

“It is a wonderful honor to recognize our two students who have distinguished themselves in the classroom,” Principal Maryanne Ricketts said. “Less than one-tenth of one percent of the 1.8 million students who take the ACT each year get a perfect score. This year there were only 494 perfect scores.”

Both Samuel and Johanningsmeier are proud to receive a perfect score on their ACT. Samuel even considers her score to be a stroke of luck.

“No matter how much you prepare or study, it’s kind of a matter of luck,” Samuel said. “There is probably one question on every section that I narrowed down to two and guessed. I could have just as easily gotten the question wrong.”

Johanningsmeier would not consider her score to be one of her proudest accomplishments but still is pleased with her score.

“It’s a nice accomplishment, but I really don’t feel like it’s very representative of who I am,” Johanningsmeier said. “It’s just a number. I am much more proud of my work on the Lance and the fact that I got into Stanford.”

Students in the Omaha area who received perfect scores on these tests were invited to attend a ceremony on May 1 at 1:30 p.m. in the Warrior Room at Westside High School. Westside had the most students in the Omaha area to receive a perfect score so they were asked to host the ceremony. Governor Dave Heineman attended the ceremony and presented the students with awards and give a speech.

Johanningsmeier and Samuel both agreed the ceremony was nice. The two of them were both given the opportunity to see kids in the Omaha area who also did well on the tests.

“The biggest thing for me about getting a perfect score, though, is not getting the recognition, but the fact that it’s something that I felt intrinsically rewarded by,” Johanningsmeier said.