For 17-year-old Bill Waterhouse, a senior at Denver's East High School, the College Board examinations were a breeze. Last week school officials looked at Bill's scores for scholastic achievement tests taken in March, read the results with astonishment: perfect 800s in English, chemistry and advanced mathematics.
When a student repeatedly makes perfect scores on tests to show how much he knows and how much he can learn, little is proved about the limits of his mind except what is self-evident—that a high-jumper can clear a high hurdle every time. Checking back to the scholastic aptitude tests that Bill Waterhouse took in December, college counselors found that he had scored perfectly in mathematics, slipped to 797 out of 800 in the test's verbal portion. Last year, taking the exams for practice as a junior, Bill missed nothing in the two aptitude tests, in the achievement tests did perfectly in math, scored 795 in physics and slipped to a merely brilliant 742 in English. (There are no records to show whether Bill's scores hit an alltime high.)
Scholar Waterhouse, a chunky, sandy-haired young man, admits to a complete lack of talent in art and athletics but gets straight A's in everything else. Physics Teacher Morris Hoffman says the boy is "lightning fast in his thinking; a test that takes most students 40 minutes is a five-to-ten-minute affair for Bill. He never had a formal biology course, and quite a bit of the general aptitude tests are based on biology. He said, 'Oh, I got a book and read it.' He can see right to the crux of a matter. He'll be a great research man."
Bill plans a career in research, probably in mathematics, physics or chemistry, has his choice of General Motors or National Merit Scholarship to pay his way next fall at Harvard. He does not date ("I'm not quite ready for that yet"), amuses himself with chess, classical records and books (most recent ones: Lord Jim, Of Human Bondage). His passion for mathematics, his favorite scholarly field, came to him early from his father, an engineer who works for the Bureau of Reclamation.
But much of the credit for the young scholar's enormous feat of learning must go to Denver's top-ranked school system. Justin Brierly, coordinator of college counseling for Denver schools, summed it up in a way that other schoolmen might well note: "Bill had the natural talent, and our system has two things to offer: early detection of gifted students and a suitable and intensified program to provide them with full development."