Two HHS students earn perfect ACT scores

Homewood High School senior Eric Hepp and junior Campbell Brabston are among less than 1 percent of students in the nation.

The pair both earned the highest possible score – 36 – on their ACTs. It’s a feat that roughly two-thirds of a percent of test-taking students achieve each year.

Brabston said this was his first time taking the ACT – though with such a score for his first attempt, there’s hardly a need for a second. He said he had focused more on studying for the PSAT, another standardized test held just a few weeks beforehand, than for the ACT.

“I was happily surprised because I expected to have to take it at least one more time to improve my score to what I wanted it to be,” he said.

Brabston said he is planning to go to college but has not yet decided what to study.

Hepp's perfect score came on his fourth attempt at the ACT. He said he made multiple attempts at the exam due to "personal striving" to achieve a better score and for better financial aid possibilities in college.

"That did pay off," Hepp said.

For his previous ACT exams, Hepp said he had taken preparatory classes. This time he studied and practiced solo and said the score was "a culmination of the three tests before and all the practice that led up to it."

Hepp, who has committed to University of Alabama and intends to study math, said he found out about his test results during his physics class.

"I do not remember the last 20 minutes of that class, I can tell you that," Hepp said. "It was really surprising but it was a huge relief."