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Teen who was born 3 months premature gets perfect score on SAT, ACT

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. - You could call this young achiever "rare" in every sense of the word.

Leyton Rebori earned perfect scores on the SAT and the ACT, but there's much more to the senior than his incredible test scores.

"The ACT is 1/4 of a percent of people get the perfect score," he told WDAF. "The SAT is about 1/1,000 of that."

And he only took the ACT three times and the SAT just once to get those perfect scores.

"I just checked my phone the day the scores were going to be out, and I saw that I got a perfect score and I just screamed," Leyton said.

Behind his infectious smile and structured appearance is a remarkable story.

Leyton was born three months premature, weighing just 1 pound and 12 ounces. He could fit in the palm of his father's hand. He spent three months in the NICU, fighting for his life.

Being born early wasn't the only challenge he faced.

"They assumed that I would probably have trouble doing things academically and physically," Leyton said.

But that's clearly not the case. Beating the odds - well, it's what he does, and according to Leyton, it's all about the power of the mind and controlling your thoughts.

"I don't feel different from other people," the Rockhurst senior said. "I just feel like this is how my life goes."

But one thing's for sure: Leyton has his priorities straight.

"Whenever I'm in a place or am in school, I just try to do my best because I don't know what opportunities that could open up or what opportunities I would have missed if I didn't do that," he said.