BATON ROUGE – A Catholic High School junior Stephen Gaudin has earned the highest possible ACT composite score, school officials reported Friday.

On average, less than one tenth of one percent of students who take the ACT earn a perfect score. To put that in perspective, only 2,235 of the 2.1 million graduates in 2016 who took the ACT score a perfect 36.

“I was pretty surprised when I found out I got a 36 on the ACT,” Gaudin said. “I thought I did well, but I wasn't expecting a perfect score. Getting a 36 has always been a goal of mine so when I finally got the score, I was ecstatic.”

The ACT test evaluates students in English, mathematics, reading and science. Each test is scored on a scale of 1-36. A student’s composite score is the average of the four test scores.

Catholic High School officials say Gaudin is a member of the drum line in the CHS Marching Band and plays the drum set for the Show Choir and Pep Band. He is a member of the National Honor Society, editor of the Junior Classical League, vice president of Mu Alpha Theta, and is a Student Ambassador.

Gaudin is set to graduate in 2018 and plans on majoring in aerospace engineering.