A senior at Pearl River Central High School scored high on his ACT test with a 35. A perfect score is 36.

After three attempts last year, Carson Berthelot was hoping to score at least a 32, as most of the scholarship programs at universities required that score or higher.

“I couldn’t believe I did it. It only began to sink in after my parents sent me a screenshot of the scores on the website,” Berthelot said.

His first attempt to take the test back in seventh grade netted Berthelot a score of 23; two attempts later his score went up by 8 points.

Berthelot said making the leap to a 31 was a big deal for him and he probably would’ve stopped there, if it weren’t for the persistence of his family to try harder.

Berthelot said it took a lot of hard work to earn the highest score of the year at the PRC School District.

Besides the ACT prep classes offered at the school, he took a lot of tests, studied difficult topics especially in math, worked on different test tasking strategies and worked toward finishing test faster.

“We are immensely proud of Carson’s achievement and we feel his score will open a lot of opportunities for colleges and his future career,” Pearl River Central High School Principal Stacey Baudoin said.

Berthelot said he wants to pursue a degree in chemical engineering and has already been accepted to the central manufacturing business program at Ole Miss but is vying for a seat at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and as such is currently working on his application.