Hardly anyone in America can say they got a perfect score on a standardized test. But Timmy Lind, a junior at Heritage Academy, did the nearly unthinkable. He scored a 36 on his ACT.

“When I got to the end, I felt that I had done really well,” said Lind, who will be a senior in the upcoming school year.

While most high schoolers take their standardized tests hoping to do well, Lind had his heart set on not just a good score, but a perfect one. He took the test a total of five times: once as a freshman, twice as a sophomore and scored a 33, 35, 34 and 34, respectively.

The exam, short for American College Testing, is a composite of scores in English, math, reading and science tests. The tests are scored from one to 36, and the exam”s total score is determined by the average of the four results.

“Heritage has a tradition of rich, academic success,” said Tommy Gunn, the headmaster of Heritage Academy. “We are so proud of Timmy Lind for reaching the goal he had set for himself. Timmy has an incredible work ethic, and the sky is the limit for him.”

In 2009, less than 1 percent of the 1.5 million high school seniors who took the test scored a 36 — .04 percent, to be exact, according to numbers released by Heritage Academy. Lind was a junior when he took the ACT.

“I was just really excited,” he said. “I was glad I didn”t have to take it again and that I”d finally gotten that score.”

Lind got the news last week while he was taking summer classes at the University of Mississippi in Oxford. He waited to tell his parents until they came to pick him up because he wanted to tell them in person.

“They were really excited as well,” he said. “They kept talking about it for like 30 minutes at least in the car on the way home.”

Lind”s parents, Bert and Cristy, are captains in the regional branch of the Salvation Army, and Timmy will be their third child to go to college. From the beginning, they knew he would be an achiever.

“When he was 3 years old, he was up under the kitchen sink looking to see where the water was coming from and going,” Cristy Lind said. “So we knew there was something a little different about Timmy.”

Cristy Lind said Timmy was shooting for a perfect score from the beginning.

“When he made a 35 he wasn”t satisfied,” she said. “He said he was going to take it until he got a 36, which he did. And we knew he would.”

Lind”s determination was apparent to the faculty at his school, too.

“He”s just a very talented young man,” said Allison Sheppard, Lind”s guidance counselor at school. “He”s an affable person, and he”s very well-liked. We require 100 hours of community service before graduation, and he goes over and above that with his family working at the Salvation Army.”

This is the first time in recent memory a Heritage student has achieved such a high score.

“We were thrilled,” said Beth Lucas, the director of admissions at Heritage. “Timmy”s took the ACT every time we offered it. When we saw Timmy coming in on Saturdays, we were crossing fingers and hoping.”

Lind is a student who throws himself into all aspects of school. This year, he was cast as the lead role in the school musical, George M. Cohen”s “Give My Regards to Broadway.” He plays the trumpet and the bassoon in the Heritage Academy Band. He has completed a laundry list of extra-curricular studies including accelerated courses at the University of Mississippi, the Mississippi University for Women and Mississippi State University.

This week, he will participate in the Salvation Army”s Territorial Music Institute in Texas, as he has for the past three years. Throughout the week, students audition and practice to produce a concert for parents an officers in the charity.

Lind hopes to attend Yale University and study archaeology.

READER FAVORITES

• 

  A plan at last: Overhaul planned for ‘most dangerous’ Hwy 45 intersection

  By Braden Simmons • 1 day ago