The first try of Shawnee Mission West junior, Elijah Bunde, on the ACT, was very good.

In fact, it was perfect.

Along with two other students in the Shawnee Mission School District this year, Bunde received a 36 on this year’s ACT. He was the only student at West to get a perfect score so far this year.

Preparing for the ACT is usually very frustrating for some people.

“I did test prep and a practice test in my SEEK class,” said junior, Bunde. He claimed it was the first time he had taken the test during his high school time. Only a tenth of one percent scored perfect out of 1.6 million students who take the test receive this score. He received a perfect score in all four categories: English, Math, Reading, and Science.

“It will be very helpful for getting into the colleges that I want to and for getting scholarships,” said Bunde, on asked how this will affect his future.  Certain scores on the ACT will give you certain scholarships the higher you score. You will receive more money the greater the scholarship is.

In the given allotted time you get on the ACT, it is usually very hard to finish all of the sections.

“I mostly focused on timing and not taking too long on any question,” said Bunde, “I also used process of elimination to narrow down the answers. I actually didn’t finish the science and guessed on the last two, so it was lucky that I guessed right.” So based on that, it looks like you don’t have to answer every question carefully.

SM West principal Dr. Crain stated that Elijah was the “epitome of student success” at West. His future looks very bright after his high school days.