Schools

Centennial Student Aces SAT

Kaliq Wang got a score of 2400 as a sophomore.

Thanks to Lonna Upton, the assistant administrator at Centennial High School, for passing this along: 


Advice from a Centennial High School junior who scored a perfect 2400 on the SAT last spring: Don't play it safe and don't spend too much time studying the vocabulary.

Instead, 16-year old Kaliq Wang, class of 2015, said, “By making completion a top priority, you can force yourself into figuring out some of the harder problems that you would’ve otherwise skipped, especially with math."

Wang, who took the SAT in March, said taking practice test after practice test will serve students the best. He took two full-length practice tests himself, and then said he “looked up some grammar rules and math rules the night before.”

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He added that students should not spend a lot of time studying vocabulary unless “you have a LOT of time.” Wang added, “You most likely know enough vocabulary for most of the vocab questions, and it’s not worth learning hundreds of words for just those couple of hard vocab questions.”

Wang, who lives in Johns Creek, said he never planned on taking the SAT in his sophomore year of high school but learned it was a requirement for the Georgia Tech Distance Learning calculus class he will take this year, a course offered at Centennial. Students compete for the virtual seats in the classroom through the Georgia Tech admission process which requires either SAT or ACT scores.

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Wang carries a heavy course load at Centennial, with three AP (advanced placement) and a senior-level Honors Spanish class in addition to the college calculus course, but he insisted he has no regular study schedule. He said he does study “quite a bit” for tests and finals, as well as the AP exams.

Even though he is barely a junior, Wang is attracting interest from some top flight schools: MIT, CalTech and a few Ivy League schools. Right now, however, his top interest is here at home, at Georgia Tech.

A well-rounded student, Wang also runs cross country, is a member of Beta Club and Mu Alpha Theta, and is on Centennial’s Academic Bowl team. He also plays tennis and the piano, and is lightning-fast at solving Rubik’s Cube.

After college, Wang is considering a wide range of careers, from engineering to computer science to healthcare. 


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