4 Cherry Creek School District Students Earn Perfect ACT Score of 36

Four Cherry Creek School District students were among 17 students statewide who were honored Nov. 14 by the Colorado Board of Education for earning a perfect score of 36 on the ACT taken by every high school junior in Colorado last spring.

Those students are:

•    Rick Laoprasert, Cherry Creek High School

•     Nate Gibby, Cherokee Trail High School

•    David Mathews, Cherokee Trail High School

•    Susan Niederhoff, Smoky Hill High School

Students in the Cherry Creek School District consistently score above the state and national average on the ACT. The district average ACT composite score for 2013 is 21.6. The Colorado average is 20.1 and the national average score is 20.9.

Cherokee Trail seniors David Mathews and Nate Gibby both took the test more than once, but didn’t do any other significant preparation.

“I took the test twice before and got a 35 both times,” said Gibby, who hopes to attend Stanford and study finance and investment banking. “Once I got a 35, I set my goal for a 36. I knew I could do it.”

Mathews, who plans to study business at Stanford, said he was “kind of surprised” by his score. “It was great! The best part was the odds of getting a perfect 36,” he said. “There were 788 students who got a perfect score out of 1.6 million students who took the test.”

The ACT is a standardized exam taken by high school students to gauge their college and career readiness. Students are assessed with four multiple choice subject tests in English, reading, math and science. All four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. accept the ACT for the college admissions process. Students often see an increase in their score the more times they take it, but few attain a perfect score.

If you would like to know how we can help increase your score. Please give us a call for a free consultation today! 720-441-2772

Five best Board Games for Middle and High School Students

Holidays can be long and when rainy days or long trips confine teens to the home, there are many games which can encourage them to spend some time with family members. This gives them a break from their computers and phones and gives you all an opportunity to have some family fun while learning.

Settlers of Catan

This board game is intense action mixed with resource management. Each game takes about an hour to play and can accommodate up to six players with an extension pack. Players must gain resources such as sheep, wheat, wood and brick to build settlements, armies and roads. This is a strategy game which teaches students to think ahead and use their resources and bargaining skills wisely. Settlers of Catan has been voted the best game of the year in the US and Europe. This game is very engaging and every game is completely different from the last.

Say Anything

This is an excellent way to get your teens talking and helps them to build social skills. Players will have to practice excellent communication skills to win and it helps you to get to know each other a little better. The game takes about 35 minutes to play and is easy to follow: 1) Ask a question from the card you draw. Some examples of questions include: “What’s the best movie of all time?” or “If I could have a BIG anything, what would it be?” 2) All the players write an answer and turn it face-up. 3) You choose which answer you like most (this is based on wit, style and accuracy). The players then try to guess which answer you picked. This is a great game for getting to know family members better and it.s fun to think of new and original answers to the questions.

Ticket to Ride

This game revolves around the adventures of Phileas Fogg and players must collect railway stations to connect routes around North America. The longer the route, the more points the player accumulates. Additional points can be accrued when you fulfill your Destination Tickets by connecting two distant cities. The player who builds the longest continuous railway also gets additional points. Games take 30-60 minutes to play and are a great way to inspire a love of travel and improve knowledge of North American geography.

Cranium

This is a great way for the whole family to play together because Cranium relies on a whole bunch of skills from general knowledge, humming tunes, charades and drawing to sculpting play dough. No matter the age of participants, they can all contribute to their teams with their own special talents. The fact that this game has so many different ways to answer a question keeps it fresh and exciting. Many questions are for team play which means all the teams get to participate, keeping the game fun and exciting.

Equate

This is Scrabble for math lovers. The board functions in much the same ways as Scrabble with tiles which contain numbers and equations. You can help students to improve math and especially algebra skills by playing this game. The board can accommodate 2-4 players from ages 8 and up.