School Bulletin: Achieving a perfect score

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A junior student at Wisconsin Lutheran High School received some unexpected news while hiking on a family vacation in Arizona. He achieved something just a fraction of percent of students do every year: a perfect score on the ACT.

"I didn't have a signal at the time so I had to wait until we got all the way back to civilization, which made it even more suspenseful," Jack Goelz says. "Finally, we got back, I got an email and I was ecstatic."

Goelz says he wasn't nervous for the ACT and felt prepared by his course work.

"I just made sure I was doing all my work in class because that's what was preparing me for it," Goelz says. "Just staying mentally active and making sure I'm up to date with everything."

Goelz has been involved in student council and the school's Viking Christian Leadership Academy. But it's not all academics for Goelz. He's a member of the school's track and field team and competes in shot put and discus.

After graduation next year, Goelz says he plans to study actuarial sciences in college. And with a perfect score, he's going to have his pick of schools. His advice to other students about to take the ACT or any other standardized tests, read the questions carefully.

"I just focused on what I actually did need," Goelz says. "Staying calm, I think was important too -- not getting anxious and just trying to stay as relaxed as possible."