WASHINGTON: Indian-American Girl, 11, Declared One Of The Brightest Students In World

WASHINGTON: Natasha Peri, an 11-year-old Indian-American girl
has been judged as one of the brightest students in the world by a top US
university for her exceptional performance in the SAT and ACT standardised
tests.

Both the
Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) and American College Testing (ACT) are
standardised tests that many colleges use to determine whether to accept a
student for admission. In some cases, companies and non-profits also use these
scores to award merit-based scholarships.

All
colleges require students to take either the SAT or the ACT and submit their
scores to their prospective universities.

Peri, a
student at Thelma L Sandmeier Elementary School in New Jersey, has been
honoured for her exceptional performance on the SAT, ACT, or similar assessment
taken as part of the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth Talent (CTY)
Search, a statement said on Monday.

She was one
of nearly 19,000 students from 84 countries who joined CTY in the 2020-21
Talent Search year. CTY uses above-grade-level testing to identify advanced
students from around the world and provide a clear picture of their true
academic abilities.

Peri took
the Johns Hopkins Talent Search test in Spring 2021, when she was in Grade 5.
Her results in the verbal and quantitative sections levelled with the 90th
percentile of advanced Grade 8 performance.

She made
the cut for Johns Hopkins CTY “High Honors Awards”.

“This
motivates me to do more,” Peri said, adding that doodling and reading J R
R Tolkien’s novels may have worked for her.

As part
of Johns Hopkins policy, granular information is not broken down by age or
race. Likewise, it is left to the guardian to disclose the prodigy’s name.
Within the US, awardees come from all 50 US states.

Less than
20 per cent of CTY Talent Search participants qualified for CTY High Honours
Awards. Honorees also qualified for CTY’s online and summer programmes, through
which bright students can form a community of engaged learners with other
bright students from around the world.

“We
are thrilled to celebrate these students. In a year that was anything but
ordinary, their love of learning shined through, and we are excited to help
cultivate their growth as scholars and citizens throughout high school,
college, and beyond,” Virginia Roach, CTY’s executive director, said in a
statement.

There are
more than 15,500 enrolments in CTY Online Programmes courses each year. In
addition, CTY’s in-person Summer Programmes for bright students is offered at
about 20 sites in the United States and Hong Kong, the statement said.