Teen with perfect AP Calculus exam score invited to the White House

published 1 February 2016

It has been an incredible week for Cedrick Argueta of Los Angeles — first, he found out he earned a perfect score on the AP Calculus test, then he was personally invited by President Obama to the next White House Science Fair.

The 17-year-old Lincoln High School senior correctly answered more than 60 multiple choice and free-response questions on the fundamental theories of calculus, and was one of just 12 students in the world — out of the 302,532 who took the test last May — to do so. Argueta didn't stop there — the Los Angeles Unified School District announced he also received perfect scores on the English and math sections of the ACT college-entrance exam. "All the credit can't come to me," he told NBC Los Angeles. "I have to give credit to all my classmates and my teachers."

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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.