Plainfield East Student Gets Perfect ACT Score

PLAINFIELD, IL — Sometimes life throws you a curve ball, and every now and then, it turns out to be a good thing.

For example, Plainfield East High School junior Jimmie Memishi took both the ACT and SAT college entrance exams. He focused more on the SAT. That makes sense since Illinois now requires all juniors to take the SAT as part of the state standardized assessment.

Yet he scores a perfect “36” on the ACT.

(Don’t worry, he did pretty good on the SAT too, scoring 1540 out of a possible 1600.)

“I was definitely taken by surprise” when he learned about his perfect score, Memishi said. The All-Conference tennis player took the ACT — even though it’s no longer required — because the exam has a slightly different format than the SAT. “I felt it might suit me better,” he said.

Memishi is the first District 202 student to earn a perfect “36” since 2016, when two students from Plainfield South and North high scores also achieved that distinction.

Only about two-tenths of one percent of all test takers get a perfect score, ACT Chief Executive Officer Marten Roorda said in his letter to Memishi. Last year, 3,741 students earned perfect scores among the 1.9 million who took the ACT, Roorda wrote.

As he looks to his senior year and beyond, Memishi said he isn’t completely sure what he will study in college. He said he is considering mechanical engineering, perhaps at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Whatever field he pursues, Memishi is likely to do well, said PEHS Principal Dr. Joe O’Brien. “James is very focused and dedicated to excellence,” O’Brien said.

Memishi’s academic track record seems to bear that out. He carried a 5.84 weighted grade point average on a 5-point scale at the end of the first semester of this school year.

“We are very proud of him for this tremendous accomplishment,” O’Brien said.

Submitted by District 202