Dubai: Sanchit Kapoor, a 15-year-old Dubai student, has achieved a perfect 2400/2400 score in the coveted Scholastic Aptitude TEST (SAT) exams. The exam was held on November 7.
The score catapulted him to the top 0.5 per cent out of the 1.8 million students who appear all over the world for this College Board exam.
The SAT score is a qualifying prerequisite for admission into undergraduate degree courses in US universities.
Sanchit, who cleared the exam with flying colours at least a year earlier than expected, dreams of being accepted into Stanford University. “I knew I had done well, but never expected this score. It was a surprise,” Kapoor told Gulf News. “I would love to major in software programming and Computer Science Engineering at Stanford, but I will begin applying next year. This result will help me apply for the early action to the university of my choice,” added Sanchit, who has to clear his grade 12 exams next year.
Topping in exams comes naturally to the teenager, a grade 11 GEMS Modern Academy student in Dubai, who stood first in his school, and throughout the UAE, in his grade 10 board examination earlier this year. He scored 97.8 per cent. He credits his achievement to a number of factors such as “my parents, who are very supportive and the institute at Knowledge Village where I went for coaching, which gave me countless practice tests”.
This support helped, said Sanchit, who has a passion for football and quizzing, besides Scrabble.
Sanchit is a top youth Scrabble player and has represented the UAE at the World Youth Scrabble Championships (WYSC) for the last four years. He was ranked 5th in the championship held at Colombo last year. This year, he ranked 7th in WYSC held at Perth, Australia.
Peter Davos, a Dubai-based independent educational consultant for US universities, said a perfect SAT score was a rare feat and definitely brought the applicant closer to his objective of gaining admission in a top US university. But SAT in itself is not the full story.
“With SAT scores, after a certain threshold like a high 700 in each section, it’s all the same for the committees that screen applicants. More important is the story of the student, their extra-curricular activities, leadership qualities, their independent, non-academic initiatives at school. In short, the sum of his personality is taken into consideration by Ivy League universities,” said Davos.
“Annually, only 400 students worldwide — from a 1.8 million who appear for SAT — achieve a perfect score. Of the 75 per cent perfect score applications to Harvard University, for example, only 10-15 per cent make it,” said Davos.
