Class Act : Student, 15, Makes Perfect Sense of SAT Exam

Cleve Cheng knew he would do well on the Scholastic Aptitude Test. A straight-A average at Van Nuys High School and three successes on the preliminary exam told him that much. Even so, the results surprised him: a perfect score of 1,600.

“It was a shock,” the 15-year-old junior from West Hills said Monday. “I never expected 1,600.”

Nearly 2 million high school students annually sweat through the standardized test, widely used by colleges as a measure of applicants’ academic prowess. Anxious for a high score, some students spend hundreds of dollars on workshops and hundreds of hours poring over vocabulary lists and mathematical principles.

Cleve, a student in the school’s math and science magnet program, flipped through an old study guide the night before the exam.

“I really didn’t do that much,” he said, grinning. Over the last year or so, he took the Preliminary Scholastic Aptitude Test three times and scored well each time. For those exams, he said, he studied vocabulary lists and took practice tests from the study guide bought by his older sister, Michelle.

“I’ve always been good at standardized tests.” Besides, he added, it wasn’t that hard.

Maybe not for Cleve. But only 10 students out of the 1.8 million who took the test last year managed a perfect score, according to Tom Ewing, spokesman for the Educational Testing Service, the Princeton, N.J., company that designs, administers and grades the test.

The exam is broken down into two sections that evaluate a student’s verbal and mathematical reasoning abilities. Top possible score in each category is 800.

Nationwide, average scores are 476 for math and 424 for verbal. California students scored an average of 484 in the math section and 419 in the verbal.

“It’s pretty unusual,” Ewing said of Cleve’s score. “It’s tough but it’s not impossible.”

Cleve is the first Van Nuys High School student to score 1,600 on the test. But magnet program coordinator Joan Martin said other students have scored nearly as well--somewhere in the 1,580 range. She said other students in the ultra-competitive program cheered Cleve’s success.

“This is a touchdown to them,” she said.

Instructors in the 600-student magnet program described Cleve as a conscientious student and a “sponge” who soaks up information. Cleve said he is uncomfortable being branded a genius. He credited his academic aptitude to his parents, both of whom immigrated to the United States from China before Cleve was born. He said they encouraged him to read and explore new ideas.

And, he insisted, he is not a nerd. He said he likes to read--science fiction, mainly--and play tennis and computer adventure games. He volunteers four hours a week at West Hills Humana Hospital filing records.

As for his future, Cleve is undecided. He hasn’t decided on a career, but is “considering journalism.” Nor has he picked out a college just yet. In the running are Princeton and Yale. He “wouldn’t mind” going to Stanford University.

Employees at the admissions office at Stanford said Monday they already had heard about Cleve and his perfect score.