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I want to say that she has the highest score on the math exam.

Can I say it another way like below?

  1. She score highest on the math exam.
  2. She score the highest on the math exam.

Which one is correct (number 1 or number 2)?

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  • 2
    You need to conjugate the verb to score to match the subject: She scores or she scored.
    – stangdon
    Commented May 25, 2021 at 15:18
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    It's possible that we'd choose different options depending on whether you meant "she scored more than all the other students taking the maths exam" or "she scored more in maths than any other exam." Can you clarify which is intended? Thanks.
    – Toby Speight
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 8:06
  • On the maths exam, she was the one to score highest
    – Strawberry
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 12:35

4 Answers 4

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As other answers have noted, neither is correct. You need

  • She scored ...

or

  • She scores ...

Although correct, these are awkward. In soccer/football you can say "she scored" but in this context I think the score belongs to the exam more than to the mathematician. So the sentence you want to replace is better: she had the highest score on the math exam.

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    Disagree that it sounds awkward, I wouldn't bat an eyelid to "She scored highest in the exam". It's possibly a little informal though.
    – anotherdave
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 9:05
  • Usually "scored" is going to make a lot more grammatical sense than "scores" for things like grades. "Scores" would only really make sense if the announcement or determination of the grades is included in the present tense. Like the teacher could use "scores" while announcing the grades or "scores" might make sense in some methods of storytelling where the entire test experience takes place in a sentence or two. Or if you use the continuous "She scores highest on math exams".
    – NotThatGuy
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 14:33
  • @anotherdave Fair point. If it were said to me in an informal context I wouldn't bat an eye either. But it's not something I would say.
    – Ethan Bolker
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 15:48
  • @EthanBolker, sure! Sometimes I think the answers on naturally lean towards a more formal context, so just offering another POV :)
    – anotherdave
    Commented May 27, 2021 at 8:30
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Neither of those are correct. no2 is more correct, but you still must conjugate to "She scores the highest on the math exam" or "She scored the highest on the math exam

Hope this helped!

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I think no2

She scores the highest (record) on the math exam

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  • @jarnet wrote "She score the highest on the math exam" which is grammatically incorrect.
    – Android Won Kenobi
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 1:10
  • Adding "record" would sound very, very strange to me there. One can break/set a record (score), but not score a record (except perhaps in the sense of analysing and quantifying it).
    – NotThatGuy
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 18:13
  • I didn't mean you should add record, just to make the meaning more easy to be understood :)
    – Ayoub EL MAJJODI
    Commented Jun 2, 2021 at 11:08
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You could add "did".

She did score the highest on the math exam.

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    personally, I'd only use this format for emphasis or negation. "Mary didn't score the highest on the maths exam." "No, she did score the highest". Or else "Mary did rubbish in all her exams". "I think she did OK — She got a 'B' in French and she did score highest on the maths exam".
    – anotherdave
    Commented May 26, 2021 at 9:03

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