Two Meadows students earn highest score on ACT

The Meadows School students Brandon Silverman and Kevin Kowalski each earned the highest possible composite score on their ACT tests, a 36. Brandon and Kevin were the only Nevada students to achieve a 36 on the test, which was taken in June by more than 2,000 students.

To prepare for the ACT, Brandon bought a copy of the official ACT book and took the practice tests focusing on the types of questions asked and the amount of time he would have to complete each section.

"I was aiming for it," says Brandon. "Before the test I was tired and worried, but after the test I had the feeling that I didn't guess on anything."

"I started looking at the prep book a couple (of) weeks before the test," says Kevin, who believed he would do well on the test.

Both Brandon and Kevin have accumulated academic honors in addition to being involved in school activities. The two seniors are both National Merit Semifinalists and both earned an honors ranking in the National Chemistry Olympiad, where they finished as part of the 150 top students in the nation in chemistry.

Kevin is a member of The Meadows Varsity Quiz Team, was the state winner of the Nevada Prize Exam and has been a United States of America Mathematical Olympiad Qualifier for the past four years.

Brandon, who earned the Bausch and Lomb Honorary Science Award as a junior, is an AP Scholar with Distinction, the vice president of the honor society and a presiding officer for the Honor Code Committee at The Meadows.

Brandon, who first learned he had achieved a 36 while checking his score online, was not surprised to learn that Kevin also received a 36.

"I smiled really big when I heard," Brandon said with a laugh. "It is pretty awesome."

"I figured if anyone was going to get a 36, it would be Kevin," adds Elaine Silverman, Brandon's mother and a mathematics instructor at The Meadows School. Elaine had the opportunity to instruct both Brandon and Kevin in a sixth-grade math class.

"Brandon is a wonderful student; it was quite easy to have him as a student," Silverman says. "He has always loved math."

Silverman says her son's ability to learn is "out of intrinsic motivation." She recalls one of Brandon's teachers telling her he is "always studying and watching the teacher, absorbing everything he was saying."

"I am very proud of his accomplishments," she says.

Brandon, who is interested in chemistry and biological science, is looking at a possible career as a doctor or researcher and assists on a clinical research project studying Parkinson's disease and its relation to dementia. With studying, school and his activities, Brandon says he is able to accomplish everything by doing "one thing at a time." Brandon relaxes by playing the guitar, which he took up five years ago.

"I mainly play covers with friends or record songs for fun," he says. "It gets me into a zone and is a good creative outlet."

For their continuing education, Kevin is looking at attending California Institute of Technology, while Brandon is applying to several universities including Washington University, Emory University, the University of Chicago, Rice, Harvard and Princeton.

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