Less than 1 percent of students who take the ACT or SAT receive perfect scores. The same statistic can be said for UK freshmen who receive the Otis A. Singletary scholarship.

But four UK freshmen received both.

Roshan Palli and Manasi Malik scored a perfect 1600 on the SAT, and Bradley Bernhard and Matthew Graham Wilson scored a perfect 36 on the ACT.

These four students with perfect scores were also awarded the Otis A. Singletary Scholarship, the largest four-year scholarship available to UK students. The scholarship provides tuition, room and board, and a yearly stipend of $1,500.

They are part of the university’s most academically accomplished incoming class in history, with more than 450 students scoring higher than a 31 ACT or SAT equivalent score, according to a press release.

Wilson, an economics student and a graduate of Christian Academy Of Louisville, said he was in shock when he saw he had a perfect ACT score.

“I just stared at the (computer) screen,” Wilson said. “Then my friend came over, and he just started screaming, telling everyone to come look.”

His key to success on the test: focus, but don’t get nervous. He said he works well listening to music, so he listened to his favorite study music before the test.

“Then, when you are taking the test, those songs are just stuck in your head,” Wilson said.

Wilson said he is a fourth-generation UK fan, but Vanderbilt was his first choice. Receiving the Singletary scholarship was the motivator that brought him here.

Palli graduated from Paul Lawrence Dunbar High School in Lexington, and said his decision to enroll at UK was easy because of his strong ties to the university.

Palli’s father is an entomology professor; plus, he said he recognized the opportunities available on campus.

A large number of students from Dunbar come to UK, Palli said, as do participants in the Governor’s Scholars Program, which he attended.

He said all these connections allow him to meet more students, which could help him in his election run for freshman senate.

He doesn’t credit an SAT guidebook for his perfect cumulative score of 1600, he said. Instead, he credits his mother, Rekha Palli.

“Instead of amusement parks, I took them to educational things,” Rekha Palli said.

She said she was a stay-at-home mom until her son was in the third grade. During that time, she tutored him in everything from social studies to mathematics and English.

She admits she played a part in his early years, but she said as Roshan got older, he pushed himself to succeed.

“It is really rare to see that in a teenager,” she said.