Achieving perfection is possible

By Hira Qureshi (Germantown High School)

The staff and administrators at Germantown High School push their students to reach for the stars and to be the crème de la crème (French for the “cream of the crop”) and one of their students has done exactly that.

Senior, Apurva Kanneganti, has accomplished the seemingly impossible, with a perfect score on both the SAT and the ACT.

Apurva Kanneganti (right) and friend Linda Razany at Germantown High School. Photo by Hira Qureshi.

While many high school students strive for that score of 25 and if they are lucky then a 30, Kanneganti strove for the ultimate score: a 36. She would not take anything less.

After conquering the ACT, she moved onto her next conquest, the SAT. Again, she wanted perfection and nothing less than a 2400.

When she received her scores for the SAT, she never expected yet another perfect score: “I thought maybe I’ll get close,” she said. “I didn’t expect to do it again.”

Lea Makhloufi, fellow senior and friend of Kanneganti’s, recounts the moment that Kanneganti received her score.

“We were all just sitting in history class, waiting for the SATs scores to come out,” Makhloufi said. When Apurva opened hers, she gasped real loud. Everyone looked at her and then her computer screen. Then someone exclaimed, ‘She did it! She got a perfect score, again’. Everyone was so excited, but Apurva just sat back, shocked. She couldn’t believe she had done it, yet again!”

So what is Kanneganti’s secret to success? “Hard work and dedication, it’s that simple,” she said.

Kanneganti, unsurprisingly, will be graduating at the top of her class. She is also a member of the International Baccalaureate program and the president of five different clubs. Kanneganti credits much of her success to her parents: “They never ‘helicopter-parented’ me, but just encouraged me to do my best.”

Aside from her studies, Kanneganti is a ‘normal’ teenager. She hangs out with her friends, participates in extracurricular activities and spends time with her family. After high school, Kanneganti said she hopes to attend Harvard University and become a physician. One piece of advice she left behind for students is “to never lose your drive and stay motivated, if you do that success is just inevitable”