LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – While most students were on vacation, two twins and rising sophomores at Sacred Heart Academy got perfect scores on the ACT.
Sophie Rydzewski and her twin sister Nell Rydzewski decided to take the ACT in June.
“For about two weeks, we would take several practice tests, just several sections a day,” Nell said.
When the scores came, Sophie checked hers first.
"I saw a 36,” she said. “I was completely shocked and happy and everything.”
“I was more nervous than ever because I'd have to get at least a 36 to match up with her,” Nell said.
When she opened her email, she had the same result.
“Then we jumped around the room a bit,” she said.
ACT officials said about 2 million students took the test last year. Of that, about 2,200 got a perfect score. That puts the girls in the 99.9 percentile.
Amy Nall is an assistant principal and dean of studies at Sacred Heart. She said teachers are proud of the girls and that the two twins have always seemed connected.
“It's amazing,” she said. "One would start to answer and the other could answer."
"I wouldn't call it telepathy,” Sophie said. “We pretty much always know what the other one is thinking.”
Their big advice isn't new: Take practice tests - a lot of them.
“The key is to just focus on those areas and that can really bring up your composite score overall,” Nell said.
"Once you see that you're improving, visibly, there's a certain joy to that,” Sophie said.
The girls also play tennis. Nell plays piano. Sophie is more into singing.
"They're more than that ACT score,” Nall said. “They're certainly more than what you would see on a piece of paper."
"We want to dedicate ourselves to other things now that we've gotten the 36,” Sophie said. “I just want to see what I can do in life and I just want to measure myself in as many ways as possible so I have a true sense of what I can accomplish."
They've already got big future plans.
"I would be President and that Nell would be my Vice President and then Nell rebelled against the Vice President idea,” Sophie said. “So now it's President Sophie and Surgeon General."
The girls said right now they are not planning to take the test again.
ACT officials said they don't even track how many rising sophomores have gotten perfect scores because so few attempt the test.
Watch the twins full interview on the WAVE 3 News app.
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