St. Martin High School student earns perfect ACT score

ST. MARTIN, Miss. (WLOX) - Tracy Le, a junior at St. Martin High School, earned a perfect score of 36 on her ACT test.

Le took the test six times to get the perfect score. She’s the first female in the school’s history to get a perfect score.

“Sometimes if you just put your teeth together, get through what you need to do, and work through the days, you surprise yourself with how far you can get,” Le said. “I never would’ve expected this when I was eight years old.”

She said she owes her success to her family.

“My parents always pushed hard work, and the thing is a lot of folks . . . ” she said, “. . . they don’t stress as much how far a hard work can get you.”

Le’s instructional coach, Dr. Stephanie Tootle said Le earned every blessing coming her way.

“She has practiced tirelessly every day,” Tootle said. “We narrowed down after lots of practice, in class certain skills that she had various weaknesses in. She took that and did practice on her own every minute that she had free.”

Jackson County School District ACT Instructional Coach Morgan Markos said any student is capable of getting the score if they put the work in.

“One of the things I tell my kids all the time is reading anything they can do to read,” Markos said. “Anytime you do any kind of times practice is excellent as well. Then also just any of those free resources that are out there.”

Le said she has her eyes set on Johns Hopkins University. She said anyone can make their dreams come true, if you only believe.

“If you think you can get there you’re going to get there. If you think you can’t get there you’re not going to get there,” she said. “If you work towards it, you can do whatever you need to do. In the end it comes down to what that person thinks about themselves.”

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