Category: New Tampa

Tampa Palms Resident Defies The Odds With Perfect Scores On The PSAT, SAT & ACT! 

 A Tampa Palms resident has accomplished an outstanding academic feat by earning perfect scores on the PSAT (1520), SAT (1600) and ACT (36) exams and is likely the first to do so in the 30+ years since the name “New Tampa” was first coined. 

Strawberry Crest High junior Adwaith Praveen has joined an elite group of test takers who achieved all three of these perfect scores. Adwaith says he chose Strawberry Crest, located in Dover (near I-4), for its International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme and his family knows that these perfect test scores are just one measure of Adwaith’s academic acumen. 

While standardized entrance exams have changed and evolved over time, their difficulty is widely recognized, as they stress out millions of high school students who take them annually. The number of students who have achieved perfect scores on all three tests is hard to pinpoint since the exams only publicly share general info. 

However, in a typical year, only 0.1%- 0.2% of ACT test-takers will receive a perfect score of 36. This means that out of the approximately 1.4 million students who took the test in 2023, only 1,400 – 2,800 likely scored a 36. When it comes to the SAT, that number is even smaller. 

Scoring a perfect 1600 on the SAT is something that only 0.03% to 0.05% accomplish. Out of the 1.9 million students who took the SAT in 2023, only 570-950 would manage a perfect score. To achieve perfection on all three is even more rare, most likely in the low 100s annually nationwide. 

For perspective, the average SAT score in Florida in 2023 was only 966 — 463 in math and 503 on the evidence-based reading and writing (ERW) section. 

Adwaith says that he enjoys challenging himself intellectually. 

“I’ve always just had a general academic inclination,” he shares. “I watch a lot of documentaries. I read a lot of books about science. I always try to learn new things and take harder courses.” 

That determination to push himself fueled Adwaith’s choice of middle and high schools — neither of which is located in the New Tampa area. 

“We decided to give me the best learning opportunities and best environment,” explains Adwaith. He attended Terrace Community Middle School (TCMS) in Temple Terrace, a charter school that was named the #1 school in Hillsborough County and one of the “100 Best Bets in Charter Schools” nationally. And, Strawberry Crest’s IB program offers rigorous, pre-university coursework for highly motivated students. The comprehensive academic program integrates literature, science and language, in addition to other curriculum areas. 

As part of his IB program, Adwaith is currently taking courses Chemistry, high-level (HL) Physics (which is apparently a step above the AP Physics offered at most high schools) and HL Mathematics. 

Adwaith, who has an unweighted grade-point average (GPA) of 4.0, describes how he manages his strenuous academic requirements. One key strategy, he says, is avoiding procrastination. He utilizes time blocks allotted for study and work on assignments during the school day in order to take care of what he can before ever leaving the campus. Then, upon arriving home after school, he makes sure to get his homework finished before anything else. 

“I definitely spend a lot of time practicing for HL Mathematics, because it’s a rigorous course,” Adwaith says. “But most of the courses I’m taking do take quite a bit of studying and knowledge. Whenever there’s a test, I will generally be studying for that, whether it’s AP US History, Chemistry, Physics or Math.” 

Adwaith says his parents absolutely support and encourage him, but they don’t pressure him. In fact, he is the one that chooses to put in all the extra effort. 

“A lot of it is my own motivation,” says Adwaith. “I want to score high on my tests, and do good in school, so I can have a better future.” 

His parents say that Adwaith’s passion for learning was evident at a young age. His father, Gopinath, and mother, Ampana, both earned Master’s degrees from universities in India, and have always encouraged and supported his growing curiosity and interests. His father, who works in IT for a bank, says that there were early signs of his son’s talents. 

“When he was very small, he had a big fascination for numbers,” recalls Gopinath. “Before kindergarten, he could count into really high numbers and would remember things like Googolplex (or 10 to the 100th power). That kind of caught everyone’s attention.” Adwaith’s interests as a child also included a fascination with the solar system, as he remembered the names of constellations, stars and planets. 

Upon realizing that Adwaith had a gift and could easily remember things, his parents did whatever they could to nurture his talents and encourage him to always aim higher. While prioritizing academics is important to the family, Anupama , a Hillsborough County substitute teacher, explains proudly that she and her husband “don’t have to push him,” although they did make a point of encouraging Adwaith’s love of reading by taking him to the library and coming home with 30-40 books as well as buying him others — mostly nonfiction, such as Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind,” by Yuval Noah Harari, that sparked his interest throughout his youth. 

Adwaith knows that his voracious reading background was one of the keys to his perfect scores on the standardized tests. 

He says that reading regularly exposed him to more grammar and vocabulary than most children pick up. 

At some point you will just be able to read a passage and [know] that something doesn’t sound right and which phrasing sounds more natural.” 

When it comes to tackling math, physics and chemistry, Adwaith has this advice: “Write down examples and do them on your own. Once you learn the concept, do practice problems. Practice problems are key.” 

Adwaith acknowledges that everyone has their own unique learning style, but he is happy to share the strategies that have helped him academically. “The best thing you can do is be generally passionate about what you do,” he says. 

When asked if she felt pressured to achieve similar scholastic success as her brother, Adwaith’s sister Parvati, a 13 year-old 8th grader, also at TCMS, had only positive things to say. 

“I don’t really feel pressure to get that score,” she shares. “But it does inspire me knowing that someone in my family could get a perfect score. If I work hard enough, maybe I could get one too.” 

While Parvati, like her brother, also enjoys math classes, playing the piano is one of her favorite activities. She has been playing for eight years. 

Even with his heavy academic load, Adwaith makes time to relax and enjoy life, too. Like many teens, he enjoys playing video games and he does like to tinker with coding and programming. However, reading is one of his favorite ways to relax and unwind. 

“I like to sit on the porch and read a book,” he says. “It’s really nice with the sun shining through.” 

Gopinath says his son also owns and spends a lot of time looking at the stars with his Dobsonian telescope (a design invented in 1965 by amateur astronomer John Dobson, which is credited with vastly increasing the size of telescopes available to amateur astronomers). “Adwaith has always been fascinated by the stars,” Gopinath says. 

And, while he does generally try to hang out with like-minded teens, who also put an emphasis on academics, Adwaith never lets his unique interests and achievements create a gap between him and his peers. Instead, he looks for their commonalities. 

“When I’m interacting with people, we usually use a common medium like games,” he says, “When I am talking with people, we will talk about shared interests.” 

While he is currently undecided when it comes to what college he wants to attend (although he has mentioned both Georgia Tech and the University of Florida in Gainesville) and what field he plans to enter, Adwaith is excited about what the future holds. While his drive and level-headed-ness can not measured by standardized tests, those traits will continue to be the key to his ongoing success.