Tulsa high school senior receives perfect ACT score on first try
Sep 2, 2025
TULSA, Okla. — A Tulsa high school senior is being recognized for receiving a perfect 36 score on her ACT the first time she took the test.
Krista Bader is a senior at Oklahoma Virtual Charter Academy (OVCA).
For context, in a study done by the ACT in 2022, over 1.3 million students took the ACT.
Out of those 1.3 million students, only 3,376 students scored a perfect 36 on the test.
After taking prep classes provided by OVCA and studying on her own time, Bader actually didn’t think she would receive a 36.
“I didn’t think I would get 36,” said Bader. “When I finished the test, I actually, I felt kind of bad about it. I thought I did badly. I mean, not badly but I was hoping before I went to take it, I was like, ‘okay, hope I get a 34.’ Then when I finished, I was like, ‘okay, I think I got a 32 or so.’ I wasn’t super excited about it. After I got the test with that [result], I was really surprised. Like, very surprised when I saw the 36.”
Her principal at OVCA, LeAn Sanders, said she wasn’t surprised at all.
“Not really…She’s just one of those kids that I thought she probably could do it and she did. That’s pretty amazing. Not too many kids do that.”
Bader is a volunteer tutor as well as the captain of her robotics team.
She explained she enjoys the programming in robotics and getting to help other students.
“I like feeling like I genuinely help someone learn. I feel like a lot of, even a lot of other tutors [and] I don’t mean to talk about other people, but I feel like a lot of the time when people are trying to learn subjects, they learn it formulaically or by going through the steps. I really want people to learn it conceptually. Also, I feel like a lot of the time tutoring is not beneficial to the student. I used to feel like tutoring was a scam, like people don’t improve much from it. I want to feel like I genuinely help people.”
Bader gave credit to her mom who has supported her through everything.
“My mom definitely. I have to thank her a lot. She’s always been there if I had trouble in school to kind of help me. That’s another reason I feel like I should try to help other people.”
Bader said she hasn’t applied to any colleges yet, but she did say her top dream school is Stanford.
Bader started her senior year at OVCA last Monday and said she plans to start applying for colleges in January.