This summer, seven Ojai Valley School students were recognized by the College Board as AP Scholars for their excellent academic performance. Among the recipients are seniors Avery Colborn, Aaron Wolf, Mark Sun, Siyu Lai, and Sebastian Wayman-Dalo, who were named AP Scholars with honor, and senior Angela Qu and junior Mark Pindur were named AP Scholars with distinction.
“An AP Scholar is granted to a student who receives a three or higher on three or more AP exams,” according to the College Board website.
AP courses are designed to give high school students the experience of an intro-level college class. OVS has provided its students with over 20 AP courses for more than two decades.
An AP exam is a test of what was learned in an AP course. Students can get college credit for the class if they pass the AP exams that are given in May. AP tests are scored on a scale of 1 through 5, with any score above a 3 considered passing.
Aaron Wolf has been taking AP courses since sophomore year when he started in AP World History. Aaron took AP Calculus AB, AP Chemistry, AP English Language, and AP US History, junior year in order to receive this award. Now as a senior, he’s taking four AP classes: AP Environmental Science, AP English Literature, AP Statistics, and AP Spanish Language.
Taking an AP course and passing the test is a sign that a student is capable of handling college-level work, which will strengthen his college applications immensely.
“I just felt that I wanted to take on the challenge of more rigorous coursework,” Aaron said. “I wanted to see if I could live up to an AP workload schedule.”
APs require a rigorous course all year, and it is typically very difficult to pass an exam. Being an AP Scholar at any level is an honor and demonstrates a strong performance on exams.
Mark Pindur, who is an AP Scholar with distinction, feels incredibly honored to be awarded. This year he is taking AP Computer Science Principles, AP US History, AP English Language and Composition, and AP Physics.
He says he feels honored to be recognized for all his hard work and achievements. “It shows me personally that the effort that i’ve put in pays off and I’ve hit a milestone of achievement,” Mark said.
Laurel Colborn believes that having so many scholars passing their AP exams proves just how motivated and hardworking OVS students truly are.
“We have students who are hard workers, who care about their education, and at the same time we have teachers who are dedicated to their subject matter and want to see their students be successful,” Mrs. Colborn said.
To take AP courses, a student must be dedicated and able to put time and effort in. Also, Mrs. Colborn gladly noted that the number of AP Scholars this year is higher than last year.
Additionally, these AP classes help prepare students for the types of courses they will be seeing once entering college. By passing an AP exam with a three or more, they are able to skip an entry-level course in college.
Aaron stated that he was hoping for much less coursework once entering college. He says he’d be “entering with half a semester of credits”, meaning he could spread out his classes and take the equivalent of three years of college over the course of four years.
Taking AP exams can show colleges, these students are high achieving students, they can tackle really hard exams.
“It helps to boost their resumes for colleges, make them more competitive for the applications,” Mrs. Colborn said, “It sets them apart because not all students that enter AP program perform as well on the AP exams.”