Adding to his college resume, Senior Asa O’Callaghan blows both his teachers and peers away with a perfect math SAT score under his belt.

Bear River Counselor, Bethany Williams, commented on how she had yet to see a student, before O’Callaghan, pass an SAT with flying colors.

“I’ve been working here for the past five years, and I haven’t seen any perfect scores on a math SAT [before now],” said Mrs. Williams.

O’Callaghan takes many Advanced Placement (AP) classes, and his teachers and classmates agree that he is a great student. Although he says that math isn’t his absolute favorite subject, he still excels at it.

“It’s honestly a tough call, there happens to be some science courses that I really like, but overall I find it interesting and I understand the logic pretty well,” said O’Callaghan.

Math Teacher Gayne Nakano said that he enjoyed having O’Callaghan as a student in his top math class, and described what he thought made O’Callaghan great at math.

“He was an excellent student, and he had a great memory,” said Mr. Nakano. “He always paid attention, and he was curious about what he learned. If he ever had trouble understanding something, or wanted to know something extra, he would ask about it … He was one of my best students, and he grasped concepts easily.”

Senior Maggie O’Callaghan, and relative of Asa O’Callaghan, described where she thinks his aptitude for mathematics came from.

“[I think it comes from] genetics, and a liking for the subject,” she said.

Though less than one percent of students get a perfect score on any part of their SAT’s, O’Callaghan said that he had a strong feeling about his test score.

“I felt like I did really well, but I wasn’t entirely sure that I’d get a perfect score,” he said. “All the problems I felt were doable.”

A fellow senior and friend of O’Callaghan, Noah Skowronski, said that he was not shocked about the perfect score. 

“He’s a good student, and we are pretty close in a term of student goodness, meaning how good we are at school, and that’s nice,” said Skowronski. “There are not many people at this school like that or like him.” 

However, despite whatever natural ability he might have, O’Callaghan said that this extraordinary achievement also stemmed from good studying habits. 

“I think I should have studied more than I did … with writing,” he said. “But math, I spent a few days studying. I suppose over all that I spent a week to ten days studying for everything.”

Skowronski said that he felt like O’Callaghan studied plenty.

“He studied a lot, especially for the English portion, because he had said that’s what he struggles with more,” Skowronski said.

Mr. Nakano elaborated on his thoughts regarding O’Callaghan’s score.

“I’d never expect anyone to get that score, but I’m definitely not surprised,” Mr. Nakano said.