Matt Sweere of Conway had more incentive than just personal satisfaction to make a perfect score on his ACT: A car was on the line.
“I made a bet with my dad that he’d buy me a Dodge Challenger; he’s not too happy about it,” Sweere said.
The 17-year-old Conway High School junior, the son of Kathi and Daniel Sweere, scored 36 on the ACT on his lucky seventh try.
He took the test one time each year in seventh, eighth, ninth and 10th grades.
“This was the third time I’d taken it my junior year,” Sweere said. “I’d gotten 35 multiple times.”
His dad’s promise of a car was an extra incentive. “It was just a way to motivate me so I would not just take it once a year like I was, and to study,” Sweere said.
Sweere, who said math and science are his best subjects in school, “for some reason,” kept getting a 34 on the math portion of the test until this last time.
He said he didn’t take the ACT prep course, but he did get a copy of the book to study. “It helped in English; it bumped me up one or two points,” he said.
The day the scores came out, he was in class. “I saw that I had like 10 text messages from my parents, so I figured I got it (a 36),” he said. “I didn’t really know what to do — my mom had sent me a picture of my score — so I just tapped the kid next to me and showed him.”
Nationally, while the actual number of students earning a composite score of 36 varies from year to year, on average, less than one-tenth of 1 percent of students who take the ACT earn the top score, according to www.act.org.
The ACT consists of tests in English, mathematics, reading and science. Each test is scored on a scale of 1 to 36, and a student’s composite score is the average of the four test scores. Some students also take ACT’s optional Writing Test, but the score for that test is reported separately and is not included in the ACT composite score.
Among test takers in the high school graduating class of 2014, only 1,407 of nearly 1.85 million students earned a composite score of 36.
Sweere said his parents and his sister, Morgan, who is a premed student at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and made a high ACT score herself, are excited for him.
Sweere credits his mother, a teacher at Ruth Doyle Middle School in Conway, for instilling in him the love of knowledge.
“She taught me how to read when I was like 2, and she pretty much taught me most of the things I learned, but then in school, it was like a review,” he said.
She teaches sixth-grade science and seventh-grade Pre-AP science. She also oversees the ACT prep for the district.
“Whenever I taught his sister something, he wanted to learn it, too,” Kathi Sweere said. She recalled that when Morgan was on a swim team, she would take Matthew for a walk while Morgan was practicing and quiz him on math problems. “I would ask him questions, like what 9 to the fifth power was, and he’d do them in his head. He was in first grade,” Kathi Sweere said.
She said he worked hard to achieve a perfect score on the ACT, adding that it’s been six years since a Conway student made a 36. She said there was an ulterior motive behind the promise of a car.
“Matthew, unfortunately, does not have to study very hard, and we were trying to get him to study. So we set this goal for him — to get this car, he had to make a 36 — because we knew he was capable,” she said. “I think he really did study; he worked for it. Once you get past a 30, every point is so hard to get.”
She described her son as “very competitive” and personable. “He can talk to anybody,” she said.
Someone else who is proud of the student is his Conway High School counselor, Belinda Claunch.
“Matt Sweere’s performance on the ACT reflects his determination that is evident in everything he does at school,” Claunch said. “He is such an extraordinary, well-rounded young man who strives for the best in himself always. It is truly a pleasure to see him reach this goal of a perfect score, and I couldn’t be more proud of him and for his family.”
Sweere has a busy summer ahead of him. He is a pitcher and catcher for an American Legion baseball team. He is a member of the Conway High School Quiz Bowl team, which won the Class 7A championship earlier this month and will go to the national competition in New Orleans this weekend.
He will attend Arkansas Governor’s School this summer and the Future Business Leaders of America Nationals in Chicago in June. Sweere won the state economics division in FBLA. He doesn’t even have a business class this year.
“I’m taking all AP classes so I can get valedictorian, so the business teachers had to recruit me,” he said.
He also is a member of the Faulkner County Youth Leadership and Antioch Baptist Church.
Sweere said he’s considering several colleges. “I’m looking at Vanderbilt, Duke, Emory and Harding. I’m probably going to double-major in business and engineering — or something and business,” he said.
Sweere said his goal is to own a company.
First, he has one more year of high school — and he’ll be driving there in his reward for ACT perfection.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.