Damm scores perfect ACT score

Saskatoon Damm makes history as first perfect score from Medford

At about 1 p.m. last Friday afternoon Saskatoon Damm learned that he made history.

The junior at Medford Area Senior High School received an email alerting him that his ACT test scores were available to be viewed online. When he logged in he found he had earned a perfect score of 36 points.

According to Curriculum Director Laura Lundy, Damm is the first student in the school’s history to earn a perfect score. She noted the closest they have come is when Richard Colwell earned a 35 several years ago. She noted that in addition to Damm’s perfect score, 12 Medford students this year earned scores of 30 or above. She noted this is a sharp increase from previous years where there would be typically about four students in that range.

Getting a perfect ACT score is rare. The standardized test includes sections on English, reading, math and science. It is one of the primary tests used for college admission and is taken by all high school juniors in Wisconsin as a way to help measure student preparedness across school districts. To put it in perspective how rare a perfect score is, in 2020 just 5,579 students out of 1.6 million who took the test earned a perfect score. This works out to be about 0.33% or one-third of one percent of test takers. Earning a 30 or above is higher than 93% of all test takers. The average composite score in Wisconsin this past year was 20.1.

“The perfect score was a pleasant surprise,” Damm said.

Damm explained that he was not surprised by the perfect score since he had been regularly scoring 35s in his practice tests. “I was expecting a good score,” he said.

According to Damm, he had practiced a lot to be prepared for the test and when he took it for real, “it felt pretty normal.” This is not to say that he didn’t find challenges. He noted that he found the reading section “a bit awkward” which threw off his pacing making him feel crunched for time.

Damm is the son of Tammy Williams and “Fuzz” Damm of Medford. He explains that his name comes from a city in Saskatchewan where his father lived for a time in his childhood. He said he is undecided about what college he wanted to attend. “I am keeping my options open,” he said, noting that this spring he planned to visit several colleges within a day’s drive of Medford. As far as the future, he said he enjoys English and social studies and would like to do something with that.

When not in class, Damm is a varsity member of the school tennis team and is the president and founder of the school’s philosophy club. Practice makes perfect Damm credited having done practice tests and other preparation work with helping to achieve the perfect score. While the ACT test changes its questions frequently, he said the practice tests exposed him to a lot of different types of questions and that he was familiar with the pattern the testing followed. He noted that beyond the math concepts and understanding of basic grammar rules, much of the test involves reading comprehension with the information presented and questions based on that information.

He said being able to pull information out of the provided passage within the time constraints is the key. Lundy noted that reading comprehension skills are important for anyone whether they are going onto college or are in the workplace where there is information that they need to do their jobs.

After Medford’s overall average ACT scores dipped last year during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Lundy explained that the school district worked this year to better prepare students for the testing process. “We decided we need to do something different,” she said.

In the past, the district had offered voluntary test preparation, but this year made it mandatory. “When it is voluntary it is not always a priority for kids,” Lundy said. In addition, students had the opportunity to take practice tests so that they were familiar with the test taking process and format.

Lundy compared the test preparation to preparing for a basketball game. “If you never practice and you get in the game you may know a lot about basketball, but you are not going to do very well,” she said. She noted that between the first and second practice tests, almost every student who took them increased their scores, with some going up as much as five points.

ACT scores are one tool used by members of the public and policy makers to judge school performance. Beyond that, Lundy noted that the students have an interest in doing well on the tests, noting that many colleges provide scholarships based on ACT score.