Student Had the Answers on SAT

While some 17-year-olds spent last summer lounging at the beach or flipping burgers, James Mandel studied killer whales in an Earthwatch Expedition program off San Juan Island in Washington.

Then, he went to Costa Rica to take part in a study of rain forests.

After he got home, he jumped right into his senior year at Corona del Mar High School, just in time to take the SAT--which he aced with a perfect score.

“Actually, school has never been hard for me,” James said. “Even as a child, I always knew that if I wanted to do well in school, I would.”

But even whiz kids get a little blown away by perfect SAT scores.

“After we took the SATs, I called the automated number to get my scores and was so excited, I had to hit the repeat button and hear it again,” he said.

Kevin Gonzalez, a spokesman for Educational Testing Service, the national organization that writes the College Board test, said it’s a “significant academic achievement” to hit an SAT bull’s-eye.

The company won’t have this year’s scores broken down by state or county until after Jan. 1, but typically only a few hundred students nationwide record perfect scores each year. In 1996, of the 1.8 million students who took the test, 453 received perfect scores; 47 were in California, with a handful in Orange County.

James said he’s hoping to attend Princeton University and major in biology.

In the meantime, he keeps busy with a pre-college calculus class at UC Irvine, the high school rowing club, senior classes, family activities, an occasional movie, performing community service, spending time with friends and tutoring other students.

“It’s funny, but even though it looks like it, I’m really not that busy,” he said, laughing.