For most people, the ACT is difficult. However, for the self-taught national merit semi-finalist senior Claire Boschert, scoring a perfect score was no problem.

Unlike some students, Boschert did not go through traditional tutoring. Most of her ACT preparation was self-taught and over the summer.

“My mom bought me an ACT practice book and so, during the summer, I had a lot of free time,” Boschert said. “So that wasn’t a challenge, dealing with school and studying at the same time. For like a week beforehand I was just going through the book and I’d mostly took their online tests.”

Boschert took the ACT test on June 11. She also took the invitation-only PSAT prep class at school, where she practiced testing skills and how to deal with improving on topics she had to work on.

“That [PSAT class] gave me a lot of just general test prep and I’m generally good at math and I’m pretty good at grammar and reading,” Boschert said. “So what I would do is take their practice tests and go over what I was missing and figure out what I’m either thinking about incorrectly or just like stupid mistakes I was making.”

Boschert claims her perfect ACT score comes from luck.

“It was exciting and surprising and it was just really cool,” Boschert said. “You can make a difference between a 20-some score and a 30 score, but a difference between a 35 and a 36 is luck at the end of the day. So you can’t really anticipate getting that perfect score.”

Boschert enjoys dedicating most of her time towards academics and Academic Decathalon.

“I really hate not being productive,” Boschert said. “So like when I am at home, I just study because it’s something that I can fill my time with and I really enjoy learning. Academic decathlon is something I really enjoy the material because it’s about studying and learning.”

After high school, Boschert plans on going to a small private college, all of which have acceptance rates that are under 15 percent.

“I’m applying to 13 schools,” Boschert said. “I’m really interested in biology and I want to go into research probably in the field of genetics or evolution.”

Boschert became the number one ranked student after the end of her sophomore year and currently still holds that title.

“[I became number one] during the summer and I was volunteering at a HOSA summer camp, the other volunteers mentioned ranks were out and so I quickly checked,” Boschert said. “When I saw I was number one I started jumping up and down excitedly, I had a huge smile, I was happy to finally reached that number one spot since I’d been slowly moving up all year.”

Through all her accomplishments, Boschert believes that she has come a long way from middle school.

“I was shy especially because you know we’d moved around a lot,” Boschert said. “In 6th or 7th grade, I just told myself that I gotta be outgoing and I think it was a good decision. You can’t gain that self-confidence and ability to be comfortable talking to other people very quickly, it’s a process you have to go through and I think I did a good job of that.”