Boston teen was perfect for new SAT

Though Libbey Davis regularly aces most of her courses, she never thought she could reach perfection on the SAT.

But this week, the junior at the all-girls Winsor School learned she was one of only seven students in Massachusetts and 107 nationally to earn the new perfect score of 2400 on the college entrance exam. She was one of more than 8,000 Massachusetts students who took the test March 12, the first offering of a revamped SAT.

On all of last year's tests, only 57 seniors in the state scored a perfect 1600, but that was on a two-part, rather than three-part exam. This year, the SAT added a writing segment to the verbal and math sections. At 800 points each, the three are equally weighted.

Davis, 16, of Boston, had never taken the SAT or a test prep course.

''The funny thing is I didn't really prepare for it," said Davis, who wants to major in science or international relations in college. ''I didn't have time."

While many of her classmates enrolled in Princeton Review and Kaplan classes to boost their SAT scores, Davis was too busy with her various activities to study much for the test. At this point, she has no idea where she wants to go to college.

She plays lacrosse, field, and ice hockey, sings in the school chorus, and belongs to her church youth group. As the test date neared last month, she was immersed in rehearsals for her role as a dancing princess in her school's spring musical, ''Kismet." Last semester, she earned A's in honors physics, honors precalculus, and Advanced Placement chemistry. Her lowest grade was a B-plus in expository writing.

''She sees herself as a math and science person, not a humanities person," said Mary Tyler Knowles, Davis's adviser. ''This is a girl who is so balanced in absolutely everything. And the nicest thing about her is how modest she is. She doesn't dominate class or parade herself as some sort of superstar."

And unlike many college-bound high school students, she has never been preoccupied with the SAT, a standardized test most colleges use to assess academic prowess. Davis said the test, in some ways, levels the playing field ''because everybody's taking the same thing, so it's not like different classes at different high schools with different systems of grading."

But she doesn't think it is necessarily a fair way to judge all students.

''Some people spend thousands of dollars and tons of time on SAT prep, whereas other people can't afford it or don't have the time for that option," she said.

Her mother, who manages a biotechnology company in Cambridge, bought her an SAT book with sample essay questions, and she wrote two essays for practice.

Davis had scored among the top 1 percent in the nation on the PSAT last year, a shortened version of the exam that is given to sophomores. But the PSAT did not include an essay, the scariest part for her when she took the SAT.

''You always hear about SATs all through high school, and I guess a big deal is made about them because it's the SAT," she said. ''But you always think of them as far off. Until all of a sudden you wake up in the morning and it's finally come."

She kept herself focused by figuring she could retake the test if she flubbed it. There is no penalty for retaking the test.

In a four-paragraph essay she had to finish in 25 minutes, she wrote that it is not always wise to side with the majority. As an example, she cited the civil rights era, when the majority of lawmakers did not agree with the movement to give African-Americans equal rights.

Davis checked her score on a computer in her school library Monday morning. She did not share her results with a friend, sitting at the computer next to her.

''She asked me how I did, and I said, 'I did well,' " Davis said. ''She wasn't really happy with her score, so I wasn't going to be like, 'Oh, I got perfect.' "

The only adult she told at school was her adviser. Then she told her younger brother and baby-sitter but did not tell her parents until they called their Beacon Hill home from Aruba. Davis said she chose not to make a big deal of her success, because seniors at her school had told her not to stress out about the test.

''They told us: 'If you do well, that's great. If you don't, it's not the end of the world,' " said Davis, whose older brother had scored 1550 on his SAT two years ago and is now a freshman at Dartmouth.

By 8 p.m. Monday, more than 85 percent of SAT test takers around the country had obtained their scores via the Internet or by telephone, according to The College Board. Test results will be mailed April 18.

The College Board would not release the names of perfect scorers, but asked schools with the perfect scorers in Massachusetts to notify the Globe. Davis's school was the only one to respond.

''Lucky 7," Caren Scoropanos, spokeswoman for The College Board, said of the perfect scorers in the Bay State. ''We definitely see it as a great accomplishment."

In California, 24 students had perfect scores. In New York state, 11 did.

Jennifer Graham, Davis's college counselor, said Davis had been wise to remain low-key about her success.

''Everybody's like, 'Oh, perfect score! That means you're set,' " Graham said. ''Scores are simply just one part of this, and while it's wonderful she got a perfect score, it doesn't really mean anything in and of itself. Many selective colleges reject kids with perfect scores."

Tracy Jan can be reached at tjan@globe.com.