MOBILE, Alabama -- Seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Self bubbled in what she said was a guess on the last question of the science section of the ACT college entrance exam, just as time was being called.

She felt certain she’d missed the question.

But she didn’t.

In fact, she got that question and almost every other one correct, she learned two weeks later.

And she’d done what fewer than 1 percent of ACT test takers accomplish. The senior at the Alabama School of Math and Science in Mobile scored a perfect 36, besting by two whole points the 34 she made as a junior.

“I was pretty excited,” Self said of the day she got her results. “I went screaming to my family,” who didn’t understand at first how great of a feat that was. “They said, ‘What do you mean you made a 36? Was that out of 100?’”

Later, Self, who lives in the small northwest Alabama town of Hamilton, received a letter in the mail telling her how unusual it was to score a 36. And the president of the Alabama School of Math and Science, which takes in top students from across the state, called her family to congratulate them.

To get a perfect score, a test taker can only miss two questions on the entire four-hour test, which has sections in English, math, reading and science. Self missed two questions on the math section.

There’s also a writing section that does not factor into the composite score.

Even though she attends the Alabama School of Math and Science, Self, who has a perfect 4.0 grade-point average, said math and especially physics are her “worst” subjects.

She’s on course to graduate “with distinction” in English and foreign languages from the school because, besides succeeding in the heavy college-level coursework in math and science, she’s taken six extra classes apiece in both English and French.

Self said she’d like to go on to college to study English and French, and to possibly teach one day. She’s never been to France, but she said she’d like to study abroad.

She’s applying to eight colleges, with her favorite right now being Barnard College in New York City. That could change, though, depending on what scholarships she’s offered.

Self said she almost didn’t even take the ACT again this summer. She was satisfied with her 34 last year, but her guidance counselor talked her into taking one more shot at it.

She went online and took every practice test available on ACT’s website. And the school librarian recommended a study guide that she read most of.

Her advice for ACT takers is to eat a good breakfast that day, and to prepare yourself well ahead of time.

Self, whose mom works as a clerk for the Alabama Department of Corrections and whose father is the county supervisor up in Marion County, said she was drawn to attend the Alabama School of Math and Science on Dauphin Street in midtown Mobile because students there take their academics seriously.

After one year at Hamilton High, she transferred to ASMS for her sophomore year, which is the first year offered at the public boarding school. Typically, 100 percent of the school’s graduates go on to college, most on some type of scholarship.

“It’s a really challenging school, but a really awesome school, too,” Self said. “Pretty much, all of the students are college bound and have a lot of enthusiasm for academics.”

Self is president of both the French Honor Society and the French Club at ASMS. She tutors other students in French, takes art classes in copper enameling, which she admitted she didn’t know a think about until she was exposed to it. She’s on the scholars bowl team, in the history club, in a swimming class, and even an anime club, a topic she said she’s still a novice on, but learning.

“I feel like I never want to stop learning about everything,” Self said. “I would like to always be learning something new. Except, I get tired of physics every once in a while, but you do what you have to do.”