A student from western Iowa’s Cass County has distinguished himself among his peers, in the area of mathematics. Williams Cord of Atlantic was one of three students in the country who had a perfect score of 40 on a SIGMA Test, when he was an eighth grader last year.
Atlantic math instructor Bruce Henderson explains. He says SIGMA originates out of Lincoln, Nebraska. The organization provides problem-solving math tests to middle school students five times each year. The students took five very hard 8-question tests.
William got every single question right on each of the five tests. Only two other students, one from Silver Springs, Maryland, the other from Hilo, Hawaii, had equally perfect scores.
Four students nationwide scored 39, and 16 had scores of 38. Henderson said two other Atlantic students placed 100-th, which is “pretty good,” considering six-thousand students took the test. He says what’s really amazing is what you see when look at where the top scorers come from.
Henderson says only the best students are allowed to take the tests, and if they’re good enough to get even half the answers right, they (meaning the students and school) are happy. Cord will receive a medal for his academic efforts.
Since he’s a freshman this year…and only eighth-graders can take the test…he will not be able to repeat the remarkable performance.