An education includes learning your limitations and when to give it one more shot. South Forsyth High School senior Cody Baetz learned his limitations -- and gave it two more.
On the third try, in October, he made a perfect 2400 on the SAT, joining five other students in metro Atlanta in the elite group of 382 students, out of 1,547,990 in the nation, who took the test this year and aced it.
One of the first things Baetz did to celebrate was to announce his feat on Facebook. Then school officials posed Baetz, 17, with the big Stanley Cup-like trophy the school system gives to the Forsyth County high school that has the highest average SAT score for the year.
The South Forsyth High School average this year is 1626, one of the reasons the school was ranked this year by Newsweek magazine as the 202nd best high school in America.
Even if Baetz had quit after the first try, last January, he wouldn’t have hurt that average. He scored a 2130. He took it again in June and jumped to a 2230 and was satisfied with that.
His counselor, Jolie Kimmel, convinced Baetz, a math whiz, he could ace the test if he just improved a bit on the critical reading portion of the exam.
“I didn’t want to do it, but she talked me into it,” he said.
Baetz wants to become an engineer. A 2400 will look good when he applies for scholarships to MIT, Cal Tech, Stanford, Harvard and other schools, said Kimmel.
Baetz also made a 35 on the other college entrance exam, the ACT, where a perfect score is 36. He’s not inclined to take that one again, “but I might talk him into it,” said Kimmel.
Principal Jason Branch said, meantime, he might have Baetz’s name inscribed on the school SAT trophy as another incentive to other students to try and try again to be the best they can be.
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