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A perfect 40.
That's the score a pair of West Geauga High School students recently achieved to ace the 31st National Latin Exam. Less than one-half of 1 percent of the approximately 150,000 individuals taking the test earned the flawless mark.
Latin masters David Moskowitz and Kevin Kramer each said they were stumped by a question or two on the annual written assessment requiring proficiency in grammar, mythology, history and story comprehension.
The challenge for Kevin, a freshman, focused on the year Mount Vesuvius erupted. He attributed being drawn to the right response of "79 A.D." to several hours of preparation linked with a little bit of luck.
For the last two years, David, a junior, fell one correct question shy of attaining 100 percent. This year, the stickler on which he was stuck involved the location of Pompeii and Vesuvius.
The appropriate choice of "Campania" completed his quest for a perfect score.
Each of the scholarly teens, who carry 4.2 grade-point averages, credit their teacher, Bill Prueter, with their heightened interest and excellence in the ancient language.
"He's always upbeat. He finds ways to get people involved. He's charismatic," Kevin said.
Prueter has been sharing his enthusiasm and knowledge of Latin with students for 32 years. He recently won the American Classical League's Dr. Elizabeth Watkins Latin Teacher of the Year Award for 2008.
The Chester Township resident said much of his prodigies' success is because of self-motivation.
"They're interested in learning. They don't look at education as a means for a job, but as a means to make sense of their lives," he said. "They have a willingness to be driven and have fun doing it."
Prueter added that support from fellow classmates also played a part.
David and Kevin are members of an active Latin Club at West Geauga, which hosts an elaborate initiation rite. Inductees don togas and carry candles as they're led through a maze-like walkway to a ceremony room where they promise to uphold the decrees of the group.
Another annual event is a three-day convention in Columbus where a marathon of testing is presented.
"We (West Geauga students) always finish (the tests) last at the convention. It's tradition. It gives us more time to think," David said.
Upon entering high school, he was torn between studying Spanish or Latin. He chose the latter after talking to his older sister's friends, who recommended Prueter.
Like David, Kevin also was influenced by the reputation of Prueter's unique teaching style.
This year he's learning double dialects by also studying Spanish.
He said the languages share many of the same words. However, during a recent interview he quickly pointed out that "Latin's much better."
The duo agreed that a particularly challenging class activity was the translation of writings on the Punic Wars.
"Passage by passage ..." David noted to depict the thoroughness of the approach.
The young men's newly gained linguistic background has proven to be helpful in other courses. In science, picking apart unfamiliar words to discover meanings is a bit easier. Understanding Old English, used in Shakespeare's writings, also has become less difficult.
Though both say the class is among their favorites, their advice to others contemplating signing up is not to underestimate its difficulty.
"You have to put effort into this class," David stated. "If you're looking for the easy way out, it's not."
Both say that because the number of those who attain a perfect score on the exam is so small, the distinction will stand out on college applications.
Not all area high schools include Latin among course selections. It's absent from Mentor High School's curriculum, which does offer Chinese.
MHS guidance counselor Dan Litzinger said college administrators have told him "it is the language of the future for all individuals across the world."
Mentor High School senior Kelly Luoma contributed to this story.
