The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Ridgefield teen gets perfect score on college level test
RIDGEFIELD — A local high school senior’s plans to study computer science in college are off to a strong start after he achieved a perfect score on the Computer Science Advanced Placement (AP) test.
Ryan Williams, 17, a Ridgefield High School senior, was one of 369 students in the world to get a perfect score on the test.
Out of 77,434 students worldwide that took the exam, 369 students – less than .5 percent – earned a perfect score, said Steven Anton, a math, computer science and engineering teacher at Ridgefield High School.
A lot of the Computer Science AP test, Ryan said, is about coding. A multiple choice question might ask students to look at a section of code and identify what it does, while a free response question might ask students to handwrite code to complete a task, like organizing a group of animals in alphabetical order.
“You can study for it,” Ryan said of the test. “You can study for the material – there’s 10 units in the computer science curriculum, but there’s also an aptitude part of the test. Generally, I find the people that enjoy class end up doing better on the exam just because a lot of computer science is application based. The more projects you do in the class and the more interested you are in the projects, the more you’ll get out of it.”
Ryan said he took the Computer Science AP test in early May and found out about his perfect score a few weeks ago. In terms of what constitutes a perfect score, Ryan said he got every point on the exam correct.
Anton said Ryan received a score of 5 on the AP exam, which is scored on a 1-to-5 scale. However, he said a 5 encompasses a range of scores since the test has 80 possible points to earn. As an example, Anton said a 5 might be earned by any score between 62 and 80. Ryan’s perfect score, Anton said, means Ryan earned all the points possible and that he scored 80/80.
“It’s so exciting, especially because I want to go into computer science and software,” Ryan said. “I love the course, I love the teachers as well and it feels kind of surreal to do something like this as well as making my teacher and school and community proud as well.”
Having studied computer science with him for two years, Ryan accredited Anton as a mentor that helped nurture his interest in computer science.
“As a teacher in general, he makes you feel comfortable in the classroom,” Ryan said of Anton. “He’s always willing to take questions, he jokes around with the students. That makes it a nice and joyful learning environment rather than a strict one, but at the same time, he’s also very good at teaching the course and provides the necessary assessments and encourages students to do their best. He’s been a mentor and kind of grown my interest and love for this.”
“Ryan was – is – the student that you know was always excited to learn more about computer science,” Anton said of Ryan. “You could tell he was very passionate about the subject and interested in learning more, and he kind of just always dove into the projects and was excited to learn more and understand the material he’s covering.”
“I am extremely proud of Ryan for his hard work,” Anton said. “He worked hard through both of my classes and I think that the perfect score really reflects that it’s hard work but it’s also really meticulous effort on the exam where you really have to pay attention and focus. There’s a lot of little things that could go wrong and to score absolutely perfectly is incredible.”
After graduating high school, Ryan plans to get his Bachelor’s degree in college and study computer science and software engineering. While he’s not sure where he’ll attend school next fall, he’s a dual citizen of the United States and Canada and has applied to different schools in both countries, including Stanford University in Stanford, Calif.; MIT in Cambridge, Mass.; the University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario; McGill University in Montreal, Quebec; and the University of Waterloo in Waterloo, Ontario.
Taking Ryan’s plans to study software engineering into account, Anton said the perfect score itself might not have any direct impact in terms of college, unless schools consider it while looking at admission.
“The score of 5 will be accepted by some schools for college credit but that is the same with any score of 5 on the exam, even if it is not a perfect score,” Anton said. “There could be other impacts that I am not aware of, however. Ryan is my first student to earn a perfect score in the years I’ve taught the AP course so I am unsure of the full impact.”