AP Computer Science Principles (APCSP) is a course where students use coding to create what they want. This past May, students took their AP exams. Two seniors, Hugo Fang and Emily Luo, were able to score not only a 5, but a perfect score by the end of their junior year. Getting a perfect score is incredibly rare, as only 459 students, out of 169,000 students worldwide, got a perfect score. 

Fang and Luo both stated that “APCSP wasn’t too difficult.” Luo had already taken coding classes prior to APCSP, allowing her to gain more knowledge and experience. Fang took both Python and Java classes. 

“Picking up the language of javascript and pseudocode wasn’t too hard,” said Fang, “as the logic behind the code was the same, and there were only minor syntax details that I needed to learn.”

Studying was also fairly easy for them. Mr. Brent Reiske, the teacher of APCSP, definitely taught thoroughly. He also was able to give a lot of material for students to study, allowing them to further their knowledge and prepare them for the test. 

Rather than going through countless hours of studying before exam day, the two seniors took their time studying and reviewing a little bit each day. 

It was helpful for Luo, as she said, “I think one of the most helpful things for me is reviewing a little bit every day.”

Fang also did the same thing, but he believed that the practice tests and quizzes that Mr. Reiske handed out were “sufficient enough to prepare” him. 

Everyone’s junior year is said to be one of the toughest and rigorous, as it’s where college preparations start. This is also what happened to the two seniors, but fortunately, APCSP did not affect them and their studies. However, the other AP classes they were taking took more time to study and review.

For Fang, he wanted to test and express his “logic, creativity, and math skills in the form of code.” It was different for Luo, as she wanted to see if coding would be something that she could see herself doing in the future. She enrolled into APCSP to see if that would happen. She also wanted to problem-solve using coding. 

Both of them were ecstatic to see that they received such a great score. Their great prowess in coding let them be able to fully understand the test material and secure the perfect score. 

“I was super excited, and I definitely was not expecting to get a perfect score,” said Luo. 

Getting a 5 is already pretty significant, but getting a 100% on an AP exam is extraordinary. Congratulations to both seniors for getting perfect scores!