A pair of aces play ACT test perfectly

The events that brought the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat to Ellen Duthoy occurred all on one Saturday in October.

First, the agony: Duthoy is a senior at White Bear Lake High School, and that morning she overslept. Typical for a teenager; unfortunately Duthoy was scheduled to take the ACT college entrance exam that morning. With moments to spare Duthoy raced to school for the exam.

"This is the worst day of my life," she texted to her friend Kaitlyn Waller later that day, sorry she had forgotten to study for the test and sorrier still that she had almost missed it.

Then, the victory: Duthoy scored a perfect 36 on the ACT, one of only two Minnesotans and 69 students across the nation to do so last fall, out of 506,000 tests taken that day. Matt Hauwiller, who attends Totino-Grace High School in Fridley, also aced the test.

While Duthoy is willing to share the details of that painful day, she keeps her pride to herself, barely mentioning her good turn of fate. Not even to her mother.

"All she told me was that she got a 36," says Duthoy's mother, Janet Newberg, who had no idea it was a perfect score until she told a friend.

Hauwiller's top score was just as serendipitous. For Hauwiller, a junior, the test was supposed to be just practice. Juniors typically take it for the first time in the spring, while the fall session usually is for seniors, such as Duthoy, who had taken it before and wanted a higher score for her college applications.

"I was planning on taking it multiple times," Hauwiller said. "I was just hoping to get a solid score -- something I could build off of."

A 36 on the ACT is a good place to start, say officials of the testing firm. "It's not a golden ticket," says ACT spokeswoman Nancy Owen. "But it certainly is a big plus for them."

Duthoy's perfect score is likely to help her get into the schools she is considering. Already, she has been accepted at the University of Minnesota, but she also has applied to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the University of Virginia. Currently she wants to study anthropology, but she admits to changing her mind every few months or so.

Chemistry teacher Jim Christensen is not surprised by Duthoy's test score. He says Duthoy is special not only because of her intelligence but also because of her work ethic and personality. "She works as hard as kids who struggle academically and want to do well," he said.

She uses humor and a lot of self-restraint to handle the gentle ribbing she has been getting from classmates over her recent celebrity status. "Genius girl," is how one of her friends recently described her.

She hasn't let all the praise change her view of herself, if only because it took her three times to get the top score. On both previous exams she scored a 33.

Hauwiller isn't going to let himself believe the hype, either. At first he refused to talk publicly about it and changed his mind only after friends and family told him he should enjoy the limelight for a moment. But Hauwiller feared the notoriety would brand him a nerd.

"That's not necessarily who I am," Hauwiller said. "You can't just focus on one thing. I play tennis, I volunteer and I hang out with my friends."

The test played to his strengths, he said. "I enjoy multiple-choice tests because I can do a process of elimination well," he said. Moreover, the part of the exam that tests language skills came just after a big test in English class.

"The ACT test was a lot easier than the huge grammar test we had just taken a week earlier."