In the competitive world of standardized testing, achieving a perfect score on the SAT is a remarkable feat, accomplished by less than 1 percent of test-takers. Justin Ricketts, a 17-year-old senior at Suncoast Community High School in Riviera Beach, Florida, not only reached this pinnacle but has also become a trailblazer in his school’s history as the first student to achieve a perfect score of 1600.

“I actually found out my score during first period the day the scores came out,” Ricketts told WPTV. “It was a bit of like, ‘OK, something is not right here.’ I looked over it a couple of times and it kind of sunk in. was like, OK, it was a good feeling when it sunk in.”

Alongside excelling academically, Ricketts is the president of Suncoast High School’s debate team and will represent his school at an upcoming national debate forum in Kentucky. Ricketts, who will be a senior at Suncoast Community High School in the fall, has been a straight-A student all throughout his high school years.

Beyond his academic and extracurricular accomplishments, Ricketts has secured a spot in MIT’s Research Institute to study visual tension, showcasing his commitment to educational excellence and intellectual curiosity.

He credits the support of his parents for helping him to succeed.

“I would like to say it’s all me, but you never know,” he said. “It’s something they’ve done since the beginning, basically.”

Described as “Mr. 36” by his peers, a nod to his perfect score, Ricketts’s chemistry teacher commended him for his achievements and expressed hope that he would receive numerous scholarship offers and be able to choose his dream university. Ricketts’s success has not only made him the pride of his teachers but also the first person of color in the county to attain a perfect SAT score, setting an inspiring precedent for future students, The Narrative Matters reported.

In 1926, the SAT was established to provide talented students, irrespective of their financial background, with an opportunity to compete for college admission and scholarships. However, nearly a century later, it often fails to serve the lower-income students it was intended to support, Brookings Institution reported. While the original purpose of the exam was to promote economic diversity, part of its modern mission is also to enhance racial diversity.

Despite these intentions, Black and Hispanic or Latino students consistently achieve lower scores on the math section of the SAT. Examining SAT scores by race using publicly available data from the College Board for over 2.1 million high school graduates from the class of 2020, an analysis by the Brookings Institution found that in the class of 2020 the average scores for Black students were 454, lower compared to those of white students 547 and Asian students (632).

Ricketts’s dedication and work ethic have been central to his success. While many students cram before standardized tests, Ricketts attributes his achievement to consistent study habits cultivated throughout his school years. The night before the SAT, he briefly reviewed essential topics, reflecting his disciplined approach to preparation.

“The night before, I reviewed some geometry skills that would be on there,” he told WPTV. “Maybe some writing skills that they might test, so I had to make sure I knew. I did, like, some little reviews here and there.”

With a flawless SAT score and an exemplary academic record, Ricketts has received acceptance letters from prestigious universities like Harvard, Princeton, and MIT. At press time, his selection had not been made public.

He has said he wants to become a neurosurgeon.

Justin Ricketts, Photo via LinkedIn, https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-ricketts-7a5276216/test photo,https://patch.com/massachusetts/winchester/calendar/event/20230626/11e9bf75-9c86-4791-a59a-92d3d51f1bd3/sat-english-prep-classes