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A Perfect Score! Arlington students are among only 1% in US to ace national language exam


Lucy Watts (ABC7)
Lucy Watts (ABC7)
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Fourteen-year-old Lucy Watts has been singing since the age of five; first in her church choir and now at her school.

"I love singing. I love music. The chance to perform on stage is truly amazing," Watts said.

The rising ninth grader also loves Latin and has taken it for 2 1/2 years.

"All the really complicated words that I didn't used to understand, I sort of get an idea of what they might mean based on their Latin roots," she said.

"It's fun and fascinating and it's a beautiful language," said Latin teacher Melanie Showell, Ph.D.

Showell taught Lucy and 14-year old Richard Chen at Swanson Middle School.

Both took the National Latin Exam and did what only about one percent of test takers do: get a perfect score.

"When I found out I got a perfect score I was like, Oh!," said Chen.

According to Arlington Public Schools about 130,000 students across the country take the exam which focuses on vocabulary, grammar, Roman cultural history and mythology.

Nineteen students in the school system were among the few who achieved perfection.

For Watts it's a two-time accomplishment.

She also achieved a perfect score on the test last year.

"I'm really excited and really surprised," Watts said.

Chen and Watts will soon receive a gold medal for this year's accomplishment.

"It makes me more determined to do well and hold up the standard that I've given myself," Chen said.

Elijah Smith of Gunston Middle School; Ava George and Elise Rickard of Thomas Jefferson Middle School; and Alex Bakalov, Stephan Butaev, Nicolas Cecil, Christopher Edmondson, Spencer Johnson, Daisy Maxwell, Allison Lanier, Caleb Pennington, Eleonora Romani, Hunter Schmelling, John Smaragdis, Ellen Summers, Lyra Sword and Amy Walsh of Swanson Middle School each earned perfect scores on the Level I exam.

Chen and Watts achieved a perfect score on the Level II Exam.

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