St. Paul student gets perfect score on ACT test, holds 4.75 GPA

A St. Paul Public Schools student received a perfect ACT score, joining the fewer than 1% of students that get the highest score each year.

Gavriel Pappas just finished his junior year at Central High School — he’s heading into his summer vacation with a 4.75 GPA and a score of 36 on the ACT standardized test.

“I studied hard and all that, got lucky too,” Pappas told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS with a smile.

Pappas also said he and his friends took many practice tests and studied together to prepare.

“I was close to screaming in the hallway,” Pappas said about finding out his score, and followed it with a laugh.

Those behind the standardized test sent Pappas a letter following his perfect score to congratulate him and inform him how rare it was.

“This year, 4,055 people [received a perfect score] out of like 1.3 million,” he said.

When asked if he likes school, Pappas said he loved it, adding he’s always tried hard with his studies and loves to learn.

“I knew he did well, I didn’t know it was a perfect score, I was not surprised,” Bob Murphy, Pappas’ physics teacher, said, adding, “He’s a hard-working guy [and it] makes a lot of sense, but still amazing.”

Pappas still has his senior year to look forward to, too. He’ll be rejoining the robotics team in the fall.

As for college plans, he hasn’t decided. The University of Minnesota intrigues him — Pappas also said he’d likely apply to Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Yale and Johns Hopkins.