College Board names South Brunswick AP Scholars

Thirty-three South Brunswick High School students have been named AP Scholars by the College Board for their achievement on the college-level AP examinations. Roughly 13 percent of the 700,000 students who took the exams merit such recognition.

Students take the AP examinations in May after completing college-level courses at their high school. There are 33 examinations offered in 19 subject areas, each consisting of multiple-choice and free response questions. The board recognizes several levels of achievement based on the number of yearlong courses and exams.

The six South Brunswick students qualifying for the AP Scholar With Distinction Award were Sunjesh Bagaria, Rita Banerjee, Jamie Demetrician, Daniel Keil, Cassandra Lajeskie, and Sandeep Shamasunder. These students earned at least 3.5 on all exams.

Students earning at least 3.25 on the exams, and qualifying for the AP Scholar With Honor Award were Mona Akbari, Asha Alex, Rama Ayyala, Carol Chan, Yuly Finkelberg, Venkataraman Gangadharan, Yiyang Gong, Lindsay Lefenfeld, Bonnie Marko, Angela Mukherjee, Nirav Shah, Lauren Wong, and Tracy Yu.

The AP Scholar Award for students completing three or more AP exams with grades of 3.0 or higher went to 14 students: Gavaskar Balasingam, Josh Boaz, Christina Branche, Heather Debby, Lisa Gordon, Matthew Guderian, Steven Halpern, Daigo Ishikawa, Lauren Mehler, Reshma Mongia, Anand X. Patel, Jennifer Randall, Joanne Sosa and Prabu Soundararajan.

The five seniors receiving awards this year are Christina Branche, Heather Debby, Steven Halpern, Yuly Finkelberg and Yiyang Gong.

Most colleges and universities award credit, advanced placement or both based on AP exam performance. More than 1,400 institutions award a year of credit (sophomore standing) to students presenting a sufficient number of qualifying grades.