ACT: three dreaded letters high school upperclassmen dread to hear. Getting a perfect score of 36 on the multi-subject college acceptance test is a dream for many students, but for one EHS senior, that dream was reached.

Alyssa Voepel recently took the ACT and achieved a rare score of 36.

Achieving a desired score on the ACT can take hours of preparing, studying, and reviewing the four subjects that appear on the test.

“The first time (I took it), I spent an entire week working through an entire ACT prep book, including five practice tests,” Voepel said. “The second time it was more reviewing.”

She first took the ACT in June 2015 and scored a 35 and retook it in June 2016 to get a perfect.

“(I took it again) mainly to see if I could get a superscore of 36,” Voepel said. “Several of the colleges that I am looking at take superscores.”

She said she didn’t expect to get the composite score of 36, but instead was seeking the superscore, which is a mixture of all of a student’s best subscores in each subject.

According to prepscholar.com, less than 0.1 percent of all test takers score a 36.

“I was super thrilled about it,” Voepel said. “(When I found out), I was jumping up and down.”

The uncommon perfect score can set a student apart from others when applying to colleges.

Even though Voepel admitted that her ACT score lowered her stress about college admission, she’s not sure where she wants to go. Although she is looking at MIT, California Institute of Technology, Harvey Mudd College, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and Purdue University, the majority of students that attend these schools have ACT scores in the upper 30s.

Along with the ACT, Voepel has scored highly on other national tests too.

“On the (Chemistry and Math 2) SAT subject tests, I got two 800s, which is perfect,” she said.

Even though she has reached perfection on the ACT, her work is not done. Voepel still plans to take the general SAT again in October to improve her score and from there, apply to colleges and scholarships and focus on her future.