For the ACT exam, a 36 is the equivalent to a 300 in bowling, a 10 in gymnastics or a 100 percent.

It’s perfect.

Nadia Danford, a Riverside-Brookfield High School senior received a 36 on the ACT exam she took in April and now her sights are set on getting into Harvard University.

“I expected to get a 33 or 34,” Danford said. “I didn’t think it was very hard.”

The ACT is a college entrance exam that universities look at as part of the admission process. The test is divided up into timed sections including English, math, reading and science with an optional writing portion.

Danford, a Riverside resident, said she approaches standardized tests with a different mindset and believes that’s why she performed well.

“(The ACT) is designed to make you rush or trick you,” Danford said. “So my strategy was to think like the test maker and not over think it.”

Glenn Arena is Danford’s Advanced Placement calculus teacher and what she calls her “biggest inspiration.”

“He takes care of people,” Danford said. “It’s a relationship I know will last past high school.”

Arena said Danford is a student who excels in a variety of areas.

“She’s well-rounded and she does not want people to say that she’s perfect. She’s very low key about that and that speaks a lot to her character,” Arena said. “She’s a force to be reckoned with, but in a good way.”

The word of Danford’s perfect score leaked throughout the high school’s halls quickly and before she found out officially her fellow students were buzzing.

“Word spread on its own because I tried to keep it quiet,” Danford said.

Danford said she expects to begin college undecided about what she will focus on, due in large part to not having a favorite high school class.

“There’s not one class at RB I don’t like,” Danford said.

Among Harvard, Danford has also applied to Yale University, Stanford University, University of Chicago and Rice University.