John Lin, a senior at River Hill High School, wasn't even planning on taking the ACT this year.
But after meeting with one of his teachers to discuss whether he should retake the SAT before his senior year, he was convinced he should give the ACT a try instead.
With just a week before his test date — Lin had registered for the test past the original deadline — he set about to prepare for the ACT, studying hours a day before the exam.
Months later, Lin learned he hadn't just scored well. He had notched a perfect score of 36.
"I actually never took a practice test and I never actually saw how different the ACT was from the SAT so I was honestly really surprised," he said of his score.
The Howard County Board of Education recognized Lin and fellow River Hill senior Jacob Snyder Nov. 20 for their perfect scores on the ACT this year.
The ACT and the SAT are standardized tests used to measure a student's college readiness as a junior or senior in high school.
Of the 1.8 million students each year who take the ACT test, less than one-tenth of 1 percent annually — about 1,800 students — manage to record a perfect score of 36 on the ACT.
Snyder also was taking the ACT for the first time when he earned a perfect score.
But the 36 wasn't the only perfect score Snyder received when taking standardized tests this year. He aced the math section of the SAT as well.
"I was obviously very surprised, very happy," he said of learning he had earned a perfect score.
Snyder is a member of the River Hill National Honor Society, the school's Maryland Technology Honor Society chapter president and a member of River Hill It's Academic team. He said he hasn't decided where he'll go to college, but plans to study engineering.
Lin said he's hoping to be accepted in the biomedical engineering program at Johns Hopkins University.
The River Hill seniors aren't the only students in Howard to ace the ACT this year.
Last month, the Board of Education honored Centennial High School senior Gabriel Koo for his perfect ACT score.
Ed Colby, an ACT spokesman, could not provide statistics on how many students took the ACT this year, but in Maryland last year, 14,080 students — about 22 percent of the class of 2014 — took the ACT.
Among those, 18 received a perfect score, Colby said.
The ACT tests students on English, math, reading and science with an optional writing test; each section is scored on a 1-36 scale. A student's final score is the average of each section. The SAT tests students on reading, mathematics and writing with each section worth up to 800 points.