By Mark Ambrogi
Carmel High School is one of three Indiana schools to have five students with perfect scores on Advanced Placement exams in the 2015-16 school year.
The four perfect scores on the AP Capstone Research were Sarah Griffin, Sameer Leley, Ryan Middleton and Kamna Gupta. Those were four of 38 perfect scores nationally. Jane Yu, now a CHS senior, received a perfect score on the AP Studio Art exam (one of 26 perfect scores nationally). A perfect score means the student did not have even one point deducted from his or her exam scores.
The students will be honored at the Carmel Clay Schools Dec. 12 school board meeting.
Middleton is attending Notre Dame and plans to double major in biological sciences and psychology.
“I feel that both the support and guidance of my AP Research Teacher, Mrs. (Allison) Malloy, and my own great interest and passion on the subject of my research were instrumental in my final score,” Middleton said. “The flexibility that the AP Research course provides its students to pursue any topic they choose is really invaluable to students.”
Griffin is double majoring in biomedical engineering and French at Valparaiso University.
“I think this exam was unique, because it consisted of a paper and a presentation rather than a typical paper exam,” Griffin said. “The key to doing well was a lot of revisions and hard work on the essay and really understanding the material prior to the presentation. My teacher was very helpful with explaining everything, and I think that the excellent teachers are the reason Carmel students, in general, did so well on this exam.”
Leley is attending Purdue, majoring in first-year engineering with plans to continue on to biomedical engineering.
“As far as the keys to getting a perfect score, I think my success came from picking a topic that I had some interest in (the effect of learning style on engineering education) and also choosing a research methodology that was both easy for me to conduct and also report on,” Leley said.
Gupta is a pre-med neuroscience major at IUPUI.
“I would say that the key to getting a perfect score for me was to simply enjoy what it was I was doing,” Gupta said. “I absolutely love giving speeches, conducting research, and making presentations. For me, AP Capstone was less of a class and more of a passion, although I did not ride through the whole class solely based on interest. There were parts of this class that were painstakingly boring and time-consuming. However, I listened in class, asked questions, and ensured that I was following protocol, which led to me enjoying the class more and receiving a perfect score.”
