Bronxville News

 

Perfection Blooms from Passion and Persistence for Two Bronxville High School Students 

A perfect AP® Score is an unattainable goal for most, especially when you consider the scope of the Advanced Placement® program that is offered in schools worldwide. In fact, less than two percent of students reach this goal. Defeating the odds, Bronxville students Andrew Doyle and Jeremy Freeman earned a perfect score on their college-level AP Exams in the spring of 2022 for Art and Design: Drawing and Computer Science Principles, respectively.

Andrew and Jeremy were among an elite group of students in the world to earn every point possible on an AP Exam, receiving the maximum score on each portion of the exam. Statistics for the exams support their remarkable achievement. For AP Art and Design: Drawing only 14.7 percent of students who submitted an AP Art and Design: Drawing scored a 5. Of 19,000 students who participated in the AP Art and Design: Drawing portfolio, 343 earned a perfect score across all components. For the Computer Science Principles exam, only 196 students, out of 137,000 worldwide, earned all 100 points possible on their project and exam. 

The question that Andrew investigated in his sustained investigation was: How do I represent the relationship between science and art through the physical and metaphorical actions of pushing and pulling? “The AP Drawing Exam is essentially a year's worth of work in the class. I submitted 15 pieces that all fall under my concentration of "pushing and pulling," explored through human anatomy, in addition to written descriptions of each work.”

Jeremy’s interest and focus led him to a fluency in JavaScript. “The course was mostly project-based, with each one expanding our use of JavaScript and fluency with the coding language. The exam was half multiple choice, and half based on a month-long project that we completed in class which, for me, was a re-creation of an old football card game that I used to play as a kid. I was drawn to the course because I've always enjoyed coding and wanted to learn an applicable coding language like JavaScript just in case I might need it in the future,” said Jeremy.

Both students credit their teachers for encouragement and support. “Ms. Kim was a fantastic instructor throughout the year and her review assignments leading up to the exam helped me to prepare,” said Jeremy. Ms. Kim returned Jeremy’s sentiment in kind, “Jeremy is an incredibly hard working and bright student. His projects in my AP CSP course were often built in layers and he would add complexity as he went. He got creative with project ideas and incorporated complex logic and loops. He added his own flair by adding tons of images and interactive elements. We'd often joke together about how his final project was often thousands of lines. He was able to troubleshoot any error he ran into and created something amazing,” said Ms. Kim.

Similarly, Andrew acknowledged the support he received from Ms. Alan. “She was incredibly supportive throughout the entire process; her guidance was essential to the creation of every one of my pieces. I am very thankful to have a teacher who is so involved in my work,” said Andrew. The feeling was mutual for Ms. Alan. “Andrew is a student who is dedicated to art both in and out of school. It is a huge accomplishment to receive a perfect score. It was a pleasure to see his thoughtful process and work ethic rewarded in such an exceptional way,” said Ms. Alan.

Receiving the news of this prestigious and rare achievement does not come without the feeling of validation. “I was pleasantly surprised when I found out about my score, I honestly did not expect it. As for what it meant to me, it was just nice to know that my preparation for the exam paid off, and that at least according to AP standards, I achieved my goal of grasping the use of JavaScript,” said Jeremy. Andrew added, “I have been drawing for many years, but last year was my first time creating a complete portfolio, which felt really rewarding. I was honored to hear how the AP graders scored my portfolio -- it was nice to see the results of my hard work.”