ACT Perfection: Redwood student, Taylor Rawson gets perfect score

The American College Test (ACT) is a standardized test that determines a high school student’s readiness for college. It covers four sections- English, Math, Reading, and Science, as well as an optional writing test.

Looking at all ACT test-takers in 2020, just 0.334% of the population earned a perfect score of 36 points. That’s only 5,579 students in the nation. Redwood High School senior, Taylor Rawson is among that top 1%.

Rawson’s current high school weighted GPA rests at a 4.34 as he is taking two Advanced Placement (AP) classes being Biology and Physics. He is also taking a CSU Expository Reading and Writing class with the purpose of preparing students to develop academic literacy at the college-level.

Rawson is ranked number eight in his class out of about 560 students.

Despite excelling in academics, it would come to one’s surprise that Rawson has actually moved around from state-to-state frequently at a young age, before finally settling in Visalia to attend Redwood permanently his sophomore year. From his fifth grade to sophomore year, Rawson had attended a total of six different schools.

Born in Provo, Utah, Rawson’s father- also named Taylor Rawson, along with his mother, Sara Rawson, attended Brigham Young University (BYU). Five days after Rawson was born, the family moved to Rancho Santa Margarita in Orange County, California. There, his father worked in swimming pool construction.

After a few months, the family moved again to Gilbert, Arizona where Rawson’s father taught at Chandler High School while also working to earn his Master’s Degree at Arizona State University which took place at night.

When his Master’s Degree was earned, they moved back to Orange County so Rawson’s father could begin his first year of dental school at the University of Southern California (USC).

After their house was sold by its owners, the Rawson family moved about 10 minutes away to Ladera Ranch where Rawson’s father continued for about three years of dental school at USC. Shortly after unfortunately, they had to move yet again to Laguna Niguel- about 15 minutes away, because that home was also sold by its owners. There, Rawson’s father finished his fourth year at USC.

Throughout their time in California, Rawson attended school for his kindergarten through second grade years.

After his second grade year, the Rawsons ended up moving back to Gilbert, Arizona because Rawson’s father got a job in public health as a general dentist. There, is where Rawson attended school for his third to fifth grade years.

After fifth grade, the family made a huge jump and moved to Anchorage, Alaska where Rawson’s father could start his pediatric dentist residency through New York University. The family stayed there for two years.

Beginning his eighth grade year, the Rawsons moved yet again back to Arizona, except this time to Yuma, so his father could work as a pediatric dentist. There, Rawson completed his eighth and ninth grade year.

During Rawson’s eighth grade year, he and his class were assigned an algebra test which was submitted to the state to compare tests to other eighth grade students from different schools. After receiving his test, Rawson discovered he placed fourth on the test out of the state of Arizona.

He says, “it was really funny to me, one of my teachers while passing by, just casually commented that I had placed fourth in the state on the test… I was just left there in shock for a couple seconds.”

And finally, beginning his sophomore year, the family settled in Visalia, California because Rawson’s father accepted another job opportunity here as a pediatric dentist. Here, at Redwood High School is where Rawson has completed his sophomore through now, senior year.

Because of this incredible journey Rawson has been on beginning at such a young age, it forced him to develop social and adaptive skills very quickly, “social-wise, I had to learn very quickly how to make new friends and build connections with people… and academic-wise, it definitely led to where I am today… because even from city-to-city, much less state-to-state, there’s different curriculums that schools have… so, I got a very unique learning experience, but I also think that really helped my development to this point,” Rawson says.

During his freshman year in Yuma, Rawson had taken a practice ACT because the high school offered it without a fee. Without studying or preparing purposefully, it came to Rawson’s surprise when finding out he had received a cumulative score of 33 out of 36.

With that, Rawson came to the decision to start preparing to take the test again at the end of his freshman year to see how much he could improve.

However, claiming to be a procrastinator, Rawson ended up only studying for the test about a week beforehand. Despite the time-crunch however, Rawson studied for multiple hours a day working his way through the ACT-prep book to try and improve his initial score of 33.

After taking the official ACT test, Rawson did indeed improve his practice test score- by one point. He says, “I would’ve been content with that, but then I realized that the college I wanted to go to- BYU Provo, like my mom and dad went to- they offered a really unique scholarship called ‘The Nelson Scholarship’.”

The Nelson Scholarship in summary, gives students that earn a score of 35 or 36 on the ACT the chance to qualify for a full-ride. A score of 34 would qualify a student for a one-year scholarship. Rawson wanted the full-ride.

This past summer, Rawson’s junior year, he decided to take the official test for the second time. However this time, he changed his studying routine.

According to Rawson, the ACT doesn’t contain extremely difficult content, but what makes it difficult is the “overwhelming pace.” Rawson explains how he had to complete 75 questions for the English portion in 45 minutes.

After taking that into consideration, to change his tactics to prepare for the test, Rawson started by taking two to three portions of the test a day to experiment how best he could improve his score under the time limit.

Later, he began to take one to two full-practice tests a day for a week-straight. His purpose in doing so was to get himself comfortable with the pace of the test and how fast he may have needed to answer each question. He states, “so, I could have more experience with how to pace myself when the test came up.”

The day before the test, Rawson didn’t study at all, but took the day to mental-rest, so he would be ready the next day.

When test day arrived, Rawson actually didn’t feel too confident in how he did, he felt like he was, “dying off near the end” during the Reading and Science portions of the test, he explains.

During the tense waiting period to hear back about his scores, Rawson was only hoping to improve by one point to get a 35 in order to qualify for the scholarship. And to his surprise, he ended up earning a perfect score of 36.

Rawson says, “My initial reaction was shock because I didn’t expect myself to do that well; in fact, I expected myself to get a lower score than I had freshman year [33]… then it was, you know, happiness, joy, and I immediately showed my parents… it was just a lot of good feelings going around.”

“I wasn’t surprised, I was like, ‘you know what, that makes sense.’ When it comes to things academic, when he has his goals set, he usually accomplishes.”

Taylor’s father, Taylor Rawson in regards to his perfect score

As previously mentioned, Rawson’s top choice in schools is Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo, Utah because of their prestigious medical program. Rawson is aiming towards a school that will provide him “good experience and teach [him] the best it can,” he explains.

As of now, he is looking towards BYU Provo for his undergraduate to earn his Bachelor’s and possibly Master’s Degree in neuroscience. Then afterwards, hopes to transfer to Harvard or Stanford Medical School.

Rawson’s interest in neuroscience arose due to this desire to work in the medical field. He says, “For much of my life, I’ve wanted to do something in the medical field since I have many family members who are in it.”

To students who may be in a similar state that Rawson was in aiming to excel on the ACT, he recommends on taking many practice tests ahead of time, as well as gaining the crucial skill of time management.

Throughout his whole ACT preparation process, both of Rawson’s parents have had a significant impact. Rawson says, “my mom- she has been the one who mainly raised me because my dad, for much of my younger years, had to go to college and he’d get back late… she helped me develop in those early years, she was the one who taught me basic math and reading and writing skills.”

Rawson adds in regards to his father, “my dad has definitely been an excellent role model for putting in a hundred percent effort, and even though I may not be the best at it, he has always told me, ‘get done what you can right now, and don’t save it for later.’ He’s definitely been the person to most help me realize that hard work and effort will get you far in this world.”

Mr. Taylor Rawson, Taylor’s father, as mentioned before, is a pediatric dentist. As the family has been settled in Visalia for quite some time now, Mr. Rawson has been working for Powell Pediatric Dentistry.

Supporting Taylor all throughout his academic journey, Mr. Rawson has done his best to “provide opportunities for him.” However, he gives all the credit to his wife, Taylor’s mother.

Mr. Rawson says, “I’ve done homework with him [Taylor], but his mom is a genius, she’s a mathematician.” He goes on to explain how when Taylor was younger, him and his wife both decided that it was in their kids’ best interest for Mrs. Rawson to become a “private tutor” to help the kids with their school work.

Mr. Rawson says, “she was very active in helping all of the siblings with teaching them, and working with them, and reading with them, and getting them excited about all things academic.”

When hearing the stimulating news of Taylor’s perfect score, Mr. Rawson was “so excited for him.” He adds, “it was a goal that he had… he wanted to get a score high enough that would qualify him for a scholarship…”

Looking up to his father’s example, Taylor learned an abundance from his experiences when it came to hard work and perseverance. Mr. Rawson says, “Him [Taylor] seeing me get up and go to work, to school every day whether I’m sick or tired or disinterested, I think it probably showed him a little bit of the ability that we can do hard things… just not giving up when it got tough.”

“He’s just a good kid. I’m just proud of him all around because he does everything. He gets up early in the morning to do seminary- the church class that happens before school- does school, then sports after that, and he helps out a lot at home… he makes good choices, he’s thoughtful about his future, and lives the lifestyle that’s going to help him have a successful future.”

Taylor’s mother, Sara Rawson

Mrs. Sara Rawson, Taylor’s mother, earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics at BYU Provo. She is currently working for her teaching credentials to be able to teach in California. Although, her long-term goal is to get her Master’s Degree or PhD in a couple of years.

Mrs. Rawson was a teacher for one year in Provo, Utah while pregnant with Taylor, then taught for an additional year in Yuma, Arizona before quitting to become an official “stay-at-home mom.”

Guiding Taylor through his younger years, Mrs. Rawson says, “He’s never really needed much help for school stuff…. Being here, making sure that they [her kids] were productive, spending family time, eating dinners together, I think that was helpful for him…”

After discovering Taylor’s practice ACT score of 33 which he took his freshman year in Yuma, Mrs. Rawson noticed his low score was in math merely because he was just a freshman and had never seen some of those problems before. To help him improve, she purchased him an ACT book guide and said, “study the math.”

She adds, “He just taught it to himself, maybe asked me a couple questions…”

When Taylor took the official ACT again that same year, they both noticed his math score was a perfect 36 because of his motivation to teach himself the math.

Being the oldest of three siblings, Rawson aims to be a role model for them. He says, “they’re [his siblings] very bright kids, they’re definitely going to make it far in life. They’ve all got their own distinct personalities… I respect them all for it.”

“A portion of why I push myself so hard, and put in so much effort to be the best I can, is because I want to be a role model for them, to try to set an example… similar to how my dad was an example to me.”

Taylor Rawson

Aside from academics, Rawson is on the varsity tennis team. He is also a part of the California Scholarship Federation (CSF) club, Ultimate Frisbee club, Key club, and Badminton club.

Rawson has played tennis since his freshman year when he attended school in Yuma, Arizona. He made the Redwood varsity team his junior year.

Rawson’s junior year, he and his doubles partner made it all the way to the West Yosemite League (WYL) competition and Area, however, unfortunately lost to their fellow teammates.

Rawson says, “We just felt proud of ourselves because to be honest, those two teammates, they are some of the best tennis players in the entire city- they’re really good.”

Rawson also participated on the cross country team his freshman year, as well as his sophomore year when first coming to Redwood. However, he soon developed a back injury which ultimately led him to quit.

Taking all of these extracurriculars into consideration, Rawson had to develop excellent time management skills in order to balance his work load.

In addition, during his free time, Rawson spends time with his friends and family. He says, “I really love having an occasional family movie, or going out for a family outing. I definitely really enjoy the family vacations we take sometimes, as well.”

“I think what helps keep him grounded a little bit is the love and focus he has on family and on friendships. He just has such an enormous heart.”

Rawson’s father, Taylor Rawson

Tags: ACT, badminton club, boys varsity tennis, CSF, features, humans of redwood, key club, Redwood, redwood gigantea, redwood journalism, redwood rangers, seniors, standardized testing, sydneybrammer, Taylor Rawson, ultimate frisbee club