Tom Hui is a self-described video game lover. Michelle Liu calls herself a nerd. Marissa Pan simply likes books, and Tanya Nguyen prefers balance in her life. What do they have in common? All scored 2400 on the SAT, putting them in the elite company of 297 nationwide and 10 in Georgia earning perfect scores last year. How did they do it? In addition to supportive parents and a whole lot of reading, here are their answers: Tom Hui He didn’t study much and everybody knew it. An only child of an online salesman and doctor’s assistant, most of Cong “Tom” Hui’s time was spent playing video games. Still, by the time this straight-A student entered seventh grade, his parents wanted him to start preparing for the SAT. So from then on, Tom was in one prep class or another. “My parents are really enthusiastic about these things,” he said. By his junior year, Tom was ready to give it a try. Score 2200 and you won’t have to take it again, his parents, Xiufang Wu and Qin Hui, told him. Tom says he wasn’t feeling well the January morning of the test but soldiered on. He was sure he missed a few questions, but he wasn’t worried. He scored 2190. His parents wanted him to try again. “At that time, I felt it was the level I was at,” he said. Still, between that test and the June exam, Tom said, he didn’t do much to prepare for the college entrance exam. “Just a little practice before,” he said. That little bit of practice paid off big time for Tom, now a Parkview High School senior. He scored a perfect 2400 and is poised to graduate second in his class. “I was pretty surprised when I got to second,” he said. “I don’t think I got better. I just didn’t do any worse.” His tip: Do as many practice tests as possible.
Marissa Pan
She was born to an epidemiologist and a computer science professor who always stressed the value of education. But Marissa Pan, 18, wanted to achieve as much as her parents did. It helped that she loved school and loved to read. Growing up, she spent hours reading the latest fiction, devouring Harry Potter, soaking up Shel Silverstein’s poetry. “That was really a critical component,” she said. “I love a good book.” She must love A’s, too. “I actually never got a B,” she said. Even so, the very thought of taking a college entrance exam made Marissa nervous. In the spring of her junior year at Alpharetta High School, she dived into a four-week prep course. On the morning of the exam, Marissa got up, had a fried egg with toast for breakfast and tossed some cheese and crackers into her purse in case she got hungry. About 7 a.m., a girlfriend picked her up and they headed to the Chattahoochee High School testing site. They talked about everything except the exam. Marissa knew there was no use stressing over the test, but she couldn’t help being a little nervous. She blazed through the exam. When the results came back weeks later, Marissa had scored a perfect 2400. “It was incredible,” she recalled in a telephone interview from her Harvard dormitory. “I was so surprised, especially since it was my first time.” Her tip: Prepare beforehand, but on testing day realize that what happens, happens; go into the room with confidence and a positive attitude. | 
