MISHAWAKA, Ind. – One Indiana student is beating the odds, earning the highest score possible on an Advanced Placement Calculus exam.
Penn High School announced in a press release that junior Felix Zhang is now the only person in the world to make a perfect score of 108 out of 108.
About 270,000 students took the exam nationwide in May of 2022. About 20 percent earned a high score of 5 (on a 1 out of 5 scale), the largest percentage since 2016.
“I felt pretty confident knowing that I knew what to do on the test, but there was always a chance I would make a small error or something,” said Zhang told reporters. “So I wasn’t really expecting to see a perfect score.”
Zhang’s AP Calculus teacher Denise White says she’s proud of Zhang and is also proud of the 50 percent of her students who earned a 5 on their exams.
“I love the students,” said White. “I think that’s why I do it. I call them my kids because now I have a daughter that just graduated and she’s away at college. So they have sort of fill that gap for me.”
Penn High School Principal Sean Galiher was notified of the achievement through an email from Trevor Packer, the head of the Advanced Placement program.
“We applaud Felix’s hard work and the AP teacher responsible for engaging students and enabling them to excel in a college-level course,” said Packer.
Students who enroll in AP courses and earn high scores have the opportunity to earn college credit and placement.