In Herriman High School’s 14 year history, only four students had earned a 36, the top score possible on the ACT exam. However, this year, two more students, Travis Ferrin and Zanna Bruening, were added to that list when they each scored 36.

Only 0.25% of students nationwide who take the ACT earn a 36. The standardized test measures academic mastery in English, mathematics, reading and science and is used to predict students’ ability to succeed in higher education academics.

“Earning a top score on the ACT is a remarkable achievement,” ACT CEO Janet Godwin said. “A student’s exceptional score of 36 will provide any college or university with ample evidence of their readiness for the academic rigors that lie ahead.”

High school students take the ACT at no cost during the second semester of their junior year.

“We encourage everybody to come and take it, just because you never know what you’re going to do at that next step,” Herriman High School Counselor Geoffrey Cox said. “So they can come and take it, get a score on the books.”

Some students get the score they want the first time, but many take it multiple times, trying to improve their score. Ferrin scored his 36 on his first attempt. Bruening took the test twice.

“The first time I got a 35 and so it was so close that I felt like I had to try for 36,” Bruening said. 

Cox said there is a reason so few earn a 36.

“You’re not going to get a 36 just by being a good test taker,” Cox said. “You have to know the content and be extremely smart.”

Bruening said taking seven college-level classes in a variety of subjects her junior year helped her prepare to do well on the test.

“Having taken those hard classes was super helpful for me because it made the ACT feel just like another test in those classes,” she said.

She said HHS teachers also provided study sessions and helped with general test-taking skills.

Students can earn a 36 composite score even if they miss a question or two because it is an average of the scores of the four subsections. However, Bruening’s test was flawless; she scored a perfect 36 in every subsection.

Perfect scores run in Bruening’s family—her father and uncle both scored a perfect 36 on their ACTs and her father also earned a perfect score on his LSATs—but she said her aspiration to continue the family legacy was self-imposed.

“I put pressure on myself to get a good score—they never put any pressure on me,” she said. “I think it helped to have people who had achieved that in the family, because it showed me that it was possible, and they were able to help me prepare all throughout my life—not just right before the ACT—and show me that it was possible.”

Her father Ari Bruening said, “This isn’t something that just happens overnight. It takes hard work throughout your life to put yourself in a position to be able to excel at a test like that.”

He said his daughter holds herself to a very high standard.

“She expects excellence out of herself, and that causes her to do what it takes to be excellent,” he said.

He said the benefit to doing well on standardized tests is that it expands your options. His top ACT score 29 years ago earned him a full tuition scholarship to BYU.

“It gives you the ability to choose what you want to do with your life,” he said. “The doors are opened for elite colleges or scholarships, or whatever it is you want to do with your life.”

Bruening said her top score gives her confidence to pursue her dreams.

“I really want to go to either med school or become a physical therapist, and I think this was really important for me, because it proved to myself that I can handle that,” she said.  λ