President Invites Teen Brainiac Who Got Perfect Score on AP Calculus Exam to White House Science Fair

Cedrick Argueta, a senior at Lincoln High, aspires to become an engineer at NASA JPL

The president personally invited a Los Angeles teenage whiz kid to the next White House Science Fair Sunday via Twitter.

The 17-year-old brainiac, Cedrick Argueta, is a senior at Lincoln High School who earned a perfect score on the AP Calculus exam last spring.

Argueta joined an exclusive club of only a dozen students in the world to have completed the feat.

"Cedrick; way to go on your perfect score!" President Barack Obama tweeted Sunday.

Argueta learned last week that of the 302,532 students who took the Advanced Placement Calculus AB exam in May, he and 11 others turned in a flawless test, according to the Los Angeles Unified School District.

"It's the most important achievement in my 17 years," he said.

In addition to what test officials called a "superior" performance on the college-level exam made up of more than 60 multiple-choice and free-response questions, Argueta also earned perfect scores on the English and math sections of the ACT college-entrance exam, the LAUSD said.

Meet the LA Teen Who Got a Perfect AP Calculus Test Score

"All the credit can't come to me," he said. "I have to give credit to all my classmates and my teachers. Not just my teacher Mr. (Anthony) Yom — he's a great teacher — but all my teachers that came before him in my elementary and middle school."

His father, Marco, was so proud, he purchased 10 copies of a Spanish-language newspaper that ran a front-page story calling Argueta a genius.

"I bought many newspapers to send to my sisters in El Salvador," the beaming dad told Telemundo 52.

Argueta, who volunteers at the Bonnie Brae Convalescent Hospital where both of his parents work, hopes to get accepted to Caltech as the first step toward an engineering career with NASA JPL.

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Spanish-language newspaper La Opinion ran a front-page story calling Cedrick Argueta "The Genius" after the 17-year-old high school senior notched a perfect score on the AP Calculus test. The teen's father, pictured in their Cypress Park home, bought 10 copies to send to his family in El Salvador.
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