The six Catholic high schools that serve the Diocese of Phoenix hold high academic standards that often pay off in terms of merit-based scholarships and other accolades. For Maeve McIntyre, a junior at Xavier College Preparatory, that pay off was a perfect score on the ACT national college admissions examination.
The ACT exam consists of tests in English, mathematics, reading and science. Each test is scored on a scale of 1-36, and a student’s composite score is the average of the four test scores. While the actual number of students earning the highest possible ACT composite score of 36 varies from year to year, less than one-tenth of one percent of all testers achieves this distinction. In the high school graduating class of 2015, only 1,598 of 1.92 million students earned the top score.
McIntyre is not the first Xavier Gator to achieve such an honor. Lauren Riddiford, an almuna entering her senior year at Columbia University in the fall, scored a perfect score on the ACT in 2012.
