A 16-year-old student in Cúcuta, a city in northeastern Colombia near the Venezuelan border, has achieved something few students in the country ever do: a perfect score on the Saber 11 exam, Colombia’s national standardized test for high school graduates, similar to the SAT in the United States. Matías Luengas Vergel, a senior at Colegio Santo Ángel de la Guarda, answered all 500 questions correctly, earning the maximum possible score of 500 points.
The exam, administered by Colombia’s Icfes testing institute, plays a major role in college admissions and scholarship decisions nationwide, making a perfect score an especially rare and celebrated feat. When the results came in, Matías’s school welcomed him back with a giant congratulatory banner, and news of his achievement quickly spread through local media.
For Matías, a self-described math enthusiast, the milestone is only the beginning. He plans to pursue a degree in mathematical engineering and eventually hopes to become a university professor, passing his passion for numbers on to future students. According to reports, this isn’t the first time he has stood out academically, though further details on his previous accomplishments haven’t been disclosed.
Want the full story, including which questions gave him the most trouble? Read the original report at El Tiempo.
Source: El cucuteño de 16 años que logró el puntaje perfecto en el Icfes 2026 cuenta qué preguntas lo hicieron dudar (eltiempo.com).
Image: deharris, BY-SA 2.0 (via Openverse).