Ladue Sophomore Earns Perfect ACT Score

t is safe to say that Haohang Xu, a 15-year-old sophomore at , and her parents were surprised after she looked up her ACT score online and learned that she she scored a 36 - a perfect score.

"I didn't expect her to get that score - she's only a sophomore," said Haohang's mother, Liping Pei, who works at Danforth Plant Science Center.

"I thought I did okay-ish," Haohang added.

Haohang thought she got somewhere between a 30 and a 34, but after talking to her, her parents and one of her teachers, it's easy to see how truly intelligent and scholarly this young woman is.

"I'm very excited for her, but not surprised," said Megan McCorkle, one of Haohang's teachers and her speech and debate team coach. "She's very bright. Her thinking is far beyond what an ACT could measure."

In preparing for the ACT, Haohang took some practice tests and did exercises in prep books like most students do, but she believes the secret to her success on the test is a lot more simple than that.

"As long as you pay attention in school and do your work, you'll be fine," she said.

In addition to being quite a scholar, Haohang is involved in numerous extra-curricular activities. Aside from the debate team, she is a coach and competitor in the Science Olympiad, a math team member, a violinist in the school's strings ensemble and a reporter for Panorama, the school's newspaper, amongst other school activities. Outside of school, she has volunteered at the library and at the Center for Hearing and Speech in St. Louis.

However, being on McCorkle's debate team is a clear favorite for Haohang.

"It's fun to go to tournaments with friends and apply things I've learned to situations," she said.

Haohang also enjoys spending time with her brother, six-year-old Daniel, who is also starting to become interested in more school-related things.

"It's cool seeing him go through the experiences I've gone through," she said. "It's fun to see his take on things."

As for the future, Haohang would like to keep her options open. She takes a deep interest in all of the things she's involved in, but she says that she's most interested in math and science.

"I prefer problem-solving as opposed to just memorizing facts," she said.

With Haohang's drive to be successful and ability to be interested by anything intact, there's no doubt that her simple goals of getting into a good college and having a successful job will be reached. Having that perfect ACT score probably won't hurt either.

"She can focus on whatever she wants do," said Haohang's father, Jinbin Xu, who is a scientist and research instructor at Washington University.