Sweet 1,600 : Education: The Valley’s SAT champions tend to downplay their achievement, saying the welcome news won’t change them.

The first thing Audrey Jean Bowers wants to say is that she does have a social life. And yes, she’s gotten a B before.

Disclaimers notwithstanding, Audrey is one of at least five San Fernando Valley students to earn the highest possible score on the Scholastic Assessment Test, the three-hour, six-section exam that can make or break a college application.

Not too shabby, says Kevin Gonzalez of the Educational Testing Service, which gives the test. Less than 1% of the students who take the test get the coveted 1,600. Last year, between 15 and 30 high school juniors and seniors nationwide garnered the maximum score.

Audrey, of Toluca Lake, sheepishly admits her mother is framing her SAT score card. “I think she’s going to put it next to my Latin awards,” the Harvard-Westlake senior said, only half-joking. But for the 16-year-old with a penchant for snakes, hamsters and chinchillas, life after the SAT will remain much the same.

She’ll still study bioengineering, possibly at UC Berkeley, and she’ll continue volunteering at the Los Angeles Zoo.

“I might get a little more phone freedom now, but that’s about it,” she mused.

Shane Cooper wasn’t waiting for the results of the test he took in October when they arrived Monday. But his mother was.

When the innocuous white envelope was delivered to the Cooper home in North Hollywood, Shane’s mother called the Sherman Oaks Center for Enriched Studies and summoned him to the principal’s office.

“She kept saying, ‘Are you sitting down? Are you sitting down?’ I finally said, ‘No, I’m standing in the principal’s office.’ ”

Upon hearing the scores, the violin and piano aficionado emitted a protracted “Oh, my God.”

Shane, 17, said the score itself is no big deal, but the ensuing financial aid offers are particularly vital.

“I really need financial aid, because I really can’t afford to go to college,” he said, adding that he wants to study business at a small private school. Yet he is quick to point out that a 1,600 does not make him perfect.

Actually, Shane missed two questions--none on the 60-question math section but two on the verbal section, which has between 75 and 85 questions.

All five of the Valley’s perfect scorers missed between two and four questions, but that didn’t change their scores, since the test was revamped last year to avoid charges of racial and gender bias.

The changes make the coveted 1,600 easier to achieve, but the double whammy of 800s in both verbal and math sections is still rare, Gonzalez said. Final results will not be available until the end of the 1995-96 school year. Many students have not yet taken the test, which will be administered six more times before the term ends. And several Valley schools have not yet received the October exam’s results.

Eugene Kim, a senior at Harvard-Westlake School in Studio City, wasn’t all that concerned about his scores.

Monday, Eugene--who likes playing pool and “kickin’ it with my friends in Koreatown”--watched television while his mother fretted over the envelope.

“I didn’t expect to do so well,” the Granada Hills 17-year-old said. To be honest, Eugene said, he scanned his score sheet for a typo. He didn’t find one.

“If you saw me, I really wouldn’t be what you expected when you think of a 1,600,” said the teen-ager, who wears baggy pants and drives a souped-up Nissan Sentra. “I don’t mean to dis, but when some people think of 1,600, they think of nerd.”

Jerry Lai of Van Nuys Medical Magnet also frets about his image.

People have been teasing him for years, saying he’d get a 1,600, but he didn’t expect the score. Jerry readily confessed that he didn’t study for the SAT.

The volleyball player and Academic Decathlon member, who hopes to enroll at Northwestern or George Washington University as a premed student, is humble about his accomplishment.

“It’s just something nice to know for the rest of your life,” he said.

Scott Schneider of the Van Nuys Math and Science Magnet, a slight 17-year-old with mussed hair, said he doesn’t care about image.

Scott has programmed IBM computers for 10 years and dubs himself an “objectivist libertarian” like author Ayn Rand. “So,” he said with a dramatic pause, “I’m not normal.”

The senior, who lives in Woodland Hills and likes to hang out at coffeehouses with friends, is also an Academic Decathlon competitor who hopes to major in computer science. He is applying to Stanford, UC Berkeley and Caltech.

And his scores?

“I’m pretty calm about it,” Scott said. “It just means I have a better choice of colleges. Other than that, it doesn’t mean a lot.”