Two J. Z. George High School juniors were surprised when they learned they had scored a perfect score of 12 on the written part of their state MAAP English II test.
Adraine Calcote and Caleb Rawls both said they had no idea they had scored that high on their state test and thought it was some kind of practical joke being played on them. Neither of them believed it until they took a look at their score.
“I thought it was a joke,” Rawls said. “I looked at it again, and said ‘Oh, that’s real.’”
Calcote said it surprised her that she did so well.
“I didn’t think I did that well,” Calcote said. “I actually thought I didn’t pass it. I saw my score, and I said ‘Oh.’”
Both attribute their success to their former English teacher, Benita Fluker. Fluker is no longer with the Carrol County School District and now works in Holly Springs.
Principal Coretta Green said it was Fluker’s goal for one of her students to have a perfect score. She said as faculty went through the results, they found Rawls score, and it was a perfect score also.
“We didn’t even know about his score,” Green said. “We also had students that were close. They made 8 out of 12, 9 out of 12, and 10 out of 12.”
Calcote said at one point she almost gave up, but it was the confidence that Fluker instilled in her that kept her going. She said she got so mad and confused by the question, she almost stopped.
“This going to sound so corny, but I got so frustrated that I almost said forget it,” she said. “But, I told myself that Mrs. Fluker believes in me, I can’t give up. Oh my God, that sounds corny, but yeah.”
Rawls said he went into the test knowing he was going to pass.
“I mean, you didn’t want to go in like ‘If I fail my test, oh well,” he said.
Both said the written part of the test was hard. But, thanks to Fluker, they were very prepared.
“All of our teachers teach us what’s on the test, but I had never been that prepared for a test before,” Rawls said. “It’s like she knew everything about that test.”
Calcote said, “Teachers tell us ‘this is going to be the test,’ and we’re like ‘Oh okay, yeah.’”
Rawls added, “But, when I got that test and saw that she was serious, I mean, it was mind blowing.”
They both said Fluker told them what kind of questions were going to be on the test, what they should look for, how they should structure their essays, what transition words they should use.
“She broke everything down for us,” Rawls said. “She knew that thing inside and out.”
They both said there was an essay that was graded and another that varied from student to student. Rawls and Calcote said they had to write an essay where someone made an argument and they had to explain the person’s train of thought and why.
“When I asked around and everyone said they had the same question, I knew that was the question being graded,” Rawls said.
He said he was thankful it wasn’t the second question.
“That one was hard,” he said. “If I had’ve gotten that one graded, it would have been bad. I would’ve made a 3. Whew! I’m so glad that one wasn’t graded.”
He said he believes it was the prayer before they took their test that help solidify their grades.
“Yep, that’s what did it. That’s what I’m putting my money on, Mrs. Fluker and Jesus.”
