FAIRHOPE — Andrew Kiernan, a junior at St. Michael Catholic High School, earned a perfect score of 36 on the ACT.

Kiernan said he was "pretty happy, excited" upon seeing his ACT score. After taking the college entrance exam twice before, he was not expecting to get a 36 despite his earlier scores being 32 and then 34.

"I was pretty surprised because I wasn't entirely sure I would (score 36)," Kiernan said. "Obviously it was the goal, but I didn't think I'd get it that go around."

He thanked his sisters, parents and grandparents for "everything they do." He mentioned how his parents instilled in him a passion for learning, which he said was passed down by his grandparents.

"My grandparents were wartime refugees from Central Europe during the communist revolution," Kiernan said. "When they left, one of the things they asked (themselves) was, 'What can you take with you and what can you not take with you?' Education is one of the things you can take with you."

Something Kiernan remembers about his great-grandfather is how he was only allowed to bring one material possession from home. He brought a copy of Dante's "Inferno." The mindset to preserve learning was passed down generations, Kiernan said, and helped him to value his education like "possessions or jewelry."

Kiernan said a self-paced ACT study course was his secret to his perfect score. In that course, which he started after he took the ACT for the first time in his sophomore year, he focused on practice problems that helped him decide "what things I need to know."

Kiernan's advice for other students aiming for a high score is to focus on the quality of your answers and strive for a better score, saying it is better to do "20 questions at 100%" rather than "100 questions at 50%." He also encouraged studying and dedicating yourself to getting a good score.

"You don't have to like practicing, but you have to think it's worthwhile," he said.

Kiernan also discussed how "self-fulfilling prophecies," a concept he recently learned in AP Psychology, applied to taking the ACT.

"What happens to you is dependent on what you think will happen to you," Kiernan explained. "If I think I'm going to do horrible on the ACT, I'm going to do horrible on the ACT. But if I think I can do this, I study and I back myself, then I'll do better on it."

After graduating high school, Kiernan is not sure what he wants to do, though he is looking at colleges with a faith-based background and is planning to study humanities. He said he could see himself working as a professor as he enjoys tutoring students and would like to continue learning new things in his career.