Maintenance Worker’s Son Is 1 of 12 People in the World to Get Perfect Score on ‘Mind Crushing’ Test
Photo: Al Seib, Los Angeles Times
In an accomplishment that even the College Board calls “remarkable,” 17-year- old Cedrick Argueta scored a perfect 5 on his Advanced Placement Calculus exam — one of only 12 students to answer every single question correctly — and has been scoring headlines and cheers ever since he found out.
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“It’s mind-blowing,” the Lincoln Heights, Calif., teen’s principal, at Abraham Lincoln High School, Jose Torres, said when he announced the honor at a school assembly last week, after which classmates chanted, “Ced-rick! Ced-rick!” according to the L.A. Times Tuesday. Yet Torres added that when considering the 302,531 teens who took the exam last May, “A lot of kids expected him to be the one [to get the best result].” Last week he discovered that his performance was perfect, via a congratulations letter from the College Board.
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Photo: Facebook/KTLA
Cedrick, after all, had been studying very hard for the three-hour AP Calculus AB exam for a very long time. “Leading up to the exam we spent about two or three hours every day after school,” he told KTLA.
“It feels kind of good to be in the spotlight for a little bit,” said the math whiz, whose maintenance worker father, El Salvador-born Marcos Argueta, never even went to high school (his mother, Lilian, from the Philippines, is a home nurse). “But I want to give credit to everybody else that helped me along the way.”
Photo: Facebook/KTLA
The high school senior studied for the exam with his calculus teacher, Anthony Yom. The educator has a history of helping kids learn well enough to ace the test. According to the L.A. Times, all 21 of his AP Calculus students passed the exam last year, and 17 got the top score of 5.
The teacher’s secret? He said that he treats the class like an athletic team, complete with matching T-shirts with students’ names on them to wear on test day “like they’re wearing jerseys to the game.” Yom explained, “I think they don’t want to disappoint each other. Talent can only take you so far. These kids put in so many hours.”
Photo: Facebook/KTLA
It helps, naturally, that Cedrick loves math. He also likes playing basketball with friends and reading the Harry Potter series. “There’s always a right answer,” the teen explained. “There’s also some beauty in it being absolute.” Cedrick also earned perfect scores on the science and math sections of the ACT exam last year.
After he graduates in June, the student hopes to study engineering at Caltech. Cedrick said that he wants to maybe “design something really cool.” For now, he’s created some serious happiness for his family. “It’s amazing,” his mother told KTLA. “I’m so, so proud of him.”
The Argueta family (Photo: Facebook/KTLA)
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