Perfect score: 18 ace math SAT at 1 school

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C

charrison

Lifer
Oct 13, 1999
17,033
1
81
linkage

AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS - Four years ago, math teacher Larry Strom told then-freshman Cristina White that she would ace the math portion of her SATs.

White never forgot her teacher's words and, sure enough, the Desert Vista High School senior recently nailed a perfect math score on the test.

"I wasn't surprised at all," White said of her flawless test score. "Strom told me I would get an 800 in math and he told my mom that, too."

White is one of 18 students at Desert Vista to recently score perfect 800s on the math portion of the SAT. Although the school has churned out math whiz kids in years past, never have so many aced the college entrance exams in one year, said Strom, chairman of the Desert Vista math department.

"We've always had a high number but never anything like this," he said. "It's grown exponentially."
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Time to find out what this school is doing right.
 
S

Syringer

Lifer
Aug 2, 2001
19,333
2
71
Eh, big deal, our school which is not renowned academically had 3 1600 SAT scorers, and at the very least 10 who scored perfect on math.
 
G

glugglug

Diamond Member
Jun 9, 2002
5,340
1
81
It's not like it's actually a difficult test. I only missed one question the first time I took it at age 12.
 
P

PELarson

Platinum Member
Mar 27, 2001
2,289
0
0
Originally posted by: glugglug
It's not like it's actually a difficult test. I only missed one question the first time I took it at age 12.
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But wasn't that question your name?:p
 
G

glugglug

Diamond Member
Jun 9, 2002
5,340
1
81
Originally posted by: PELarson
Originally posted by: glugglug
It's not like it's actually a difficult test. I only missed one question the first time I took it at age 12.
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But wasn't that question your name?:p
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<homer>DOH!</homer>
 
P

PrinceofWands

Lifer
May 16, 2000
13,526
0
0
heheeh, what i'm waiting for is the follow-up story where they find those students also scored about 100 on the verbal and have never heard of history, philosophy, art, theology, sociology, psychology etc. I'm all for high scores in any subject, but without balance, it's more damaging to society than balanced lower scores. This ridiculous push towards science/math/engineering geniuses without an ounce of wisdom or humanity...*shudder*. It's like giving a case of live grenades to an elementary school class.
 
HeroOfPellinor

HeroOfPellinor

Lifer
Dec 27, 2001
11,272
1
0
Originally posted by: konichiwa
So we're judging the performance of schools on SAT's now? Jeeeeeez
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I prefer basing performance based on the self-esteem level of the students, but, whatever.
 
C

CrimsonWolf

Senior member
Oct 28, 2000
867
0
0
I actually attended Desert Vista High School my junior and senior year. I graduated last spring, and now I am at the University of Arizona studying political science and economics.

This does not surprise me very much. Over the past couple of years, the number of students getting an 800 on the math has gradually increased each year. I am acquainted with only some of the students who scored an 800 this year, but most of them are very intelligent. For privacy concerns, I won't go into specifics. I don't know about this year, but in previous years, the students who scored an 800 in the math usually scored an 800 on the verbal as well. Most of them were well rounded academically - they performed well in English and History/Government classes in addition to math. This is a bit of a generalization, but most of these students who did well were firmly pushed by their parents. Almost all of their classes were honors or AP and they spent the majority of their time studying.

Also, I had Larry Strom as a teacher for Precalculus my junior year and AP Statistics my senior year. He does well as a teacher, but his greatest talent is motivating students to succeed. This makes him a superb department head and the math department is very dedicated to its students. Here is a link to the department site, if you're interested. Personally, I didn't fare as well as others in the math SAT (I got a 610), but I did score a 5 on the AP Stats test.

Overall, Desert Vista is good school. The administration is friendly to student input and nearly all of my teachers were fantastic. Also, Desert Vista is very well funded. The only major concern I have with Desert Vista is that it is extremely overcrowded. I believe enrollment for this year was approximately 3800 students and the school was only built to house about 3400. They are building more classrooms, but the school is locked in a residential neighborhood, which makes expansion very difficult. However, the students and teachers are dealing with it and I am confident they will do fine. I only spent two years there, but I enjoyed it.

I hope this gives you guys a little insight into the school. Since I don't want to go into specifics, I know it's tough for you guys to verify what I'm saying, but I hope you get something out of it anyway.

CrimsonWolf

Cliff Notes - I went to this school. These people were smart. Desert Vista good school overall.
 
P

PrinceofWands

Lifer
May 16, 2000
13,526
0
0
Originally posted by: CrimsonWolf
I actually attended Desert Vista High School my junior and senior year. I graduated last spring, and now I am at the University of Arizona studying political science and economics.

This does not surprise me very much. Over the past couple of years, the number of students getting an 800 on the math has gradually increased each year. I am acquainted with only some of the students who scored an 800 this year, but most of them are very intelligent. For privacy concerns, I won't go into specifics. I don't know about this year, but in previous years, the students who scored an 800 in the math usually scored an 800 on the verbal as well. Most of them were well rounded academically - they performed well in English and History/Government classes in addition to math. This is a bit of a generalization, but most of these students who did well were firmly pushed by their parents. Almost all of their classes were honors or AP and they spent the majority of their time studying.

Also, I had Larry Strom as a teacher for Precalculus my junior year and AP Statistics my senior year. He does well as a teacher, but his greatest talent is motivating students to succeed. This makes him a superb department head and the math department is very dedicated to its students. Here is a link to the department site, if you're interested. Personally, I didn't fare as well as others in the math SAT (I got a 610), but I did score a 5 on the AP Stats test.

Overall, Desert Vista is good school. The administration is friendly to student input and nearly all of my teachers were fantastic. Also, Desert Vista is very well funded. The only major concern I have with Desert Vista is that it is extremely overcrowded. I believe enrollment for this year was approximately 3800 students and the school was only built to house about 3400. They are building more classrooms, but the school is locked in a residential neighborhood, which makes expansion very difficult. However, the students and teachers are dealing with it and I am confident they will do fine. I only spent two years there, but I enjoyed it.

I hope this gives you guys a little insight into the school. Since I don't want to go into specifics, I know it's tough for you guys to verify what I'm saying, but I hope you get something out of it anyway.

CrimsonWolf

Cliff Notes - I went to this school. These people were smart. Desert Vista good school overall.
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That's good to hear. I was being a bit overly cynical, I know. It's just my nature. We only had 1 1600 while I was in high school (5 years), but then we only had 800 kids. We usually had around a dozen score 1300-1600 though, which was ok given the redneck nature of our town and size of the school. And if you're going to score 800 in something, the math is more likely since math is theoretically absolute while the verbal portion is open to interpretation somewhat. Even I didn't get 800 verbal and that's always been my focus, granted I was only 16 at the time so who knows what it would have been at the end of high school instead of the middle.
 
W

wirelessenabled

Platinum Member
Feb 5, 2001
2,190
41
91
Originally posted by: CrimsonWolf
I actually attended Desert Vista High School my junior and senior year. I graduated last spring, and now I am at the University of Arizona studying political science and economics.

This does not surprise me very much. Over the past couple of years, the number of students getting an 800 on the math has gradually increased each year. I am acquainted with only some of the students who scored an 800 this year, but most of them are very intelligent. For privacy concerns, I won't go into specifics. I don't know about this year, but in previous years, the students who scored an 800 in the math usually scored an 800 on the verbal as well. Most of them were well rounded academically - they performed well in English and History/Government classes in addition to math. This is a bit of a generalization, but most of these students who did well were firmly pushed by their parents. Almost all of their classes were honors or AP and they spent the majority of their time studying.

CrimsonWolf

Cliff Notes - I went to this school. These people were smart. Desert Vista good school overall.
Click to expand...


I went to a podunk school with 49 classmates in the {cough} early 70s. Took calculus with 5 others, there were no AP classes of any sort, spent most of my time working at my parents lumberyard (missed an average of over 90 days per year for each of my 4 years of high school) and even I scored a 750 on the SAT math. I think I studied about 10 hours my entire high school career.:)


 
R

RabidMongoose

Lifer
Aug 14, 2001
11,061
0
0
Is this really that rare? I suppose it is, but I'm sure that there are a decent number of high schools with fantastic SAT scores. My high school must have had at least 15-20 1500+ SAT scores for my year.
 
M

Mill

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
28,558
3
81
Originally posted by: RabidMongoose
Is this really that rare? I suppose it is, but I'm sure that there are a decent number of high schools with fantastic SAT scores. My high school must have had at least 15-20 1500+ SAT scores for my year.
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Yeah, but how many of those had a perfect sub-test?
 
C

CanOWorms

Lifer
Jul 3, 2001
12,404
2
0
Doesn't the SAT get easier every few years or so? I think they're even getting rid of the analogies!
 
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