Sunny Chennupati at James Clemens aces ACT with 36

MADISON – Sunny Chennupati, a junior at James Clemens High School, proved his academic strength by a perfect score of 36 on the American College Test (ACT).

Sunny Chennupati, a junior at James Clemens High School, scored 36 on the ACT and 2,360 on the SAT. (CONTRIBUTED)

On his first try, Chennupati scored the maximum 800 on the SAT’s reading and math subsections. He scored 760 on the writing subsection, giving a total of 2,360 out of a possible 2,400.

He studied “around 150 hours over the summer and school year. While James Clemens offers an exceptional education, its classes are not enough to fully prepare oneself for the two standardized tests,” Chennupati said.

For Chennupati, the critical reading questions were most difficult. “While these questions are generally straightforward, the passages are so long there’s not much time left to peruse the questions, even if I just skimmed the passage.”

The Chennupati family moved to Madison in 1998 when Sunny was one year old. “My parents’ motives for moving were for me to achieve a greater education than in India and to advance their career opportunities,” Sunny said.

Sunny’s father, Rama Rao Chennupati, works as a software scientist at Intergraph Corporation. His mother, Jayanthi Chennupati, is studying nursing in college. His sister, Nayana Tara Chennupati, is a second-grader at Mill Creek Elementary School.

At James Clemens, he participates with math team, Scholars’ Bowl, Science Olympiad, Science Bowl and National Honor Society. He volunteers to tutor children in mathematics and at Indian community events.

In eighth-grade, Chennupati advanced to the National MATHCOUNTS Championship after placing third in Alabama. He has won numerous mathematics trophies. His Scholar’s Bowl team qualified for national competition in his sophomore year. In 2011, he achieved the Madison Mayor’s Award for Scholastic Excellence.

With his 36 ACT score, Chennupati hopes numerous colleges will offer full scholarships “so I have backups in case I don’t receive admission into my top prospective universities.”

After pursuing a pre-medicine major, Chennupati intends to enter medical school. “I would love to attend Johns Hopkins University, but I would gladly attend Vanderbilt, Duke, Harvard and Princeton.”