Stephen Kiepke, Big Sandy senior at The University of Texas at Tyler, received a perfect score of 1600 on the Graduate Record Examination.

“I didn’t really study. I did look online at some practice vocabulary words, but when I saw there were about 100 of them, I just gave up,” said Kiepke, who also made a perfect score of 1600 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test during his senior year of high school.

In addition to general reading of science fiction and fantasy novels, Kiepke says he has a good memory and absorbs information easily.

“I didn’t go into the test expecting to do it again, I just did my best,” said Kiepke, who made a 1570 on the practice GRE.

Kiepke is an English major with a minor in classical studies, which includes Greek and Latin literature and languages. He plans to attend graduate school at the University of Oregon, Texas Tech, UT or UT Tyler, pursue his doctorate degree and eventually teach English at the university level.

One of the 15 campuses of the UT System, UT Tyler offers excellence in teaching, research, artistic performance and community service.  More than 70 undergraduate and graduate degree programs are available at UT Tyler, which has an enrollment of more than 5,700 high-ability students at its campuses in Tyler, Longview and Palestine.