Recently at St. Louis High School, an academic beast, was discovered- – Curtis Brashaw. All he did was earn an awesome score of 1440 for the SAT!  

This isn’t Brashaw’s first rodeo at the SAT, he took the test last June and scored 1430. His score consisted of 720 in reading and 710 in math. At the time, his total score was tied with the SLHS school record. This record was set in 2020! Brashaw commented, “I took it before the rest of my class to be more prepared for the test. I also didn’t want to stress about it during my already stressful junior year. I retook the SAT with my class just to see how I would do. The first time I prepared; I watched a few youtube videos, and I did many of the practice tests that can be found on the College Board’s website. They have all of the same type of material as on the real SAT.”

St. Louis High School guidance and academic counselor Mrs. Surra, commented, “I am not at all surprised that Curtis tested so well, since he scored so high on his first SAT over the summer. He is a very driven student, and when he sets his mind to achieving a goal, that goal gets demolished. I am very happy to see Curtis score so high. He is one step closer to his goal of attending his dream school. I am very excited to see how the rest of our students scored as well. I have seen Curtis grow academically quite a bit in the past few years because of both his work ethic and his academic prowess.”

Brashaw did practice test after practice test to hopefully get his score improved for when his second chance at redemption to beat the school record occurred. Brashaw hopes to attend Northwestern University. He exclaimed, “When I found out I beat the school record, I was really happy. While I acknowledge that the SAT is not a good way of measuring intelligence, my SAT score will hopefully help me attend one of my dream schools: Notre Dame, Northwestern, or Michigan. When I saw my new score I was happy. I was hoping to get a higher score, but I did find this specific test to be more difficult than the other, so I was still happy. Either way, it is an improvement — growth.” 

The SAT can be the most stressful part of a junior’s year. Brashaw highlighted that the hardest thing in preparing for the SAT is stamina. He explained, “You have to make sure you pace yourself well so you don’t run out of time and so you stay energized and interested throughout the test. You also have to use your breaks wisely.” He also commented that students need practice, to sit down and take the practice test, they are key to improving! “I plan on doing SAT tutoring for free for service hours, so if anyone is planning on retaking it or taking it for the first time, they can reach out to me. I want everyone to know that the SAT does not reflect your self-worth or your knowledge. The SAT is weird. It does not test basic knowledge, and the only way to get my score is to not be “smart” but to understand what kind of questions are on the test by practicing,” expressed Brashaw.