Elite Student with Perfect SAT Score profiled in OC Register

Photo Courtesy : OC RegisterIRVINE – At first, Hope Xu thought her SAT score was a mistake.

Maybe the exam administrators hadn't applied the curve yet. Maybe she wasn't reading her score report correctly. Maybe her less-than-perfect raw score on the essay portion of the SAT – 9 out of 12 – hadn't been factored into her curved, final score.

"The computer screen said, '800, 800, 800.' I said, 'Where's my score? It's out of 800,'" said Xu, 16, a junior at Irvine's University High School. "I probably sat there for about 40 seconds, and then I said, 'Wake up.' In my head, I was thinking, what should I do? Should I get up and dance? Should I cry? Usually, when stressful moments come up, I don't react."

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