SMUS is Number One in Advanced Placement Ranking

Our school recently received some truly outstanding news from the College Board: we have been ranked the number-one school in Canada for “equity and excellence” in the Advanced Placement® (AP) program.

Compared to nearly 600 Canadian schools, SMUS scores highest in the country for student access to the AP program combined with the exam results they achieve. Worldwide, SMUS ranks in the top 60 of 18,000 schools that offer the Advanced Placement program, which offers high school students college-level courses and the chance to earn university credits.

“The success of our students in the AP program is a tribute to their talent and hard work.”

“We are extraordinarily proud of the ‘equity and excellence’ ranking not only because it reflects another impressive performance by our students, but also because it shows we are achieving our goal of encouraging as many students as possible participate in the AP program,” says our Head of School Bob Snowden. “Every year more than 200 of our students challenge themselves with AP courses and exams. That is phenomenal for a school our size and this ranking confirms that SMUS is by far the leading AP program among Canadian schools.”

SMUS is the second largest AP school in Canada in terms of the number of exams taken. In the last school year, 133 out of 136 students in the graduating class took at least one AP exam. In addition, 98 SMUS students achieved “AP Scholar” status including 24 National AP Scholars, the most prestigious title awarded by the College Board to Canadian students. SMUS offers 27 Advanced Placement courses, including Human Geography, Psychology, Microeconomics/Macroeconomics, Calculus and Chemistry.

“SMUS pioneered AP in Canada as the first Canadian school to offer the program in 1978,” says Mr. Snowden. “It offers students flexibility and choice in creating a program of study that reflects their passions, and it’s widely accepted in colleges and universities across North America as well as internationally. Because we expect all of our students to apply to universities both within and outside of Canada, we have made it an academic priority to have a strong AP program.”

The success of our students in the AP program is a tribute to their talent and hard work, and confirms the value of integrating the AP program into our overall academic approach,” says Mr. Snowden. “Encouraging and enabling our students to set their sights high and seek advanced placement in colleges and universities is part of our commitment to seek the excellence in all of us and provide outstanding preparation for higher learning and for life.”

Congratulations to our 2012 AP Scholars

AP International Diploma Mitchell A. Cram ’12 Meng-Hsuan Tsai ’12 Yi Ran Wang ’12 National AP Scholars Julia P. Milden ’12 Judith Beestermoeller ’12 ZiKeng Chen ’12 Jason Chiu ’12 Yun-Seoun Choi ’12 Christina M. Chwyl ’12 Jonathan M. Considine ’12 Mitchell A. Cram ’12 Irene L. Evans ’12 Kim Ga Yong ’12 Peter Harrison ’12 Samuel Jackson ’12 Gabrielle R. Jeliazkov ’12 Quinn T. Kliman ’12 Brenton Yue Law ’12 Cheryl Li ’12 David Lunn ’12 Chieh Luo ’12 Troy L. Maclure ’12 Zachary P. Santella ’12 Victor Shang ’12 Yi Ran Wang ’12 Sanne J. Wijnands ’12 Jihyun Yong ’12

AP Scholars with Distinction Julia P. Milden ’12 Chrystine Beaumont ’12 Judith Beestermoeller ’12 Arthur J. Brodhurst ’12 ZiKeng Chen ’12 Jason Chiu ’12 Yun-Seoun Choi ’12 Christina M. Chwyl ’12 Lucas Comamala ’12 Jonathan M. Considine ’12 Mitchell A. Cram ’12 Irene L. Evans ’12 Eamon J. Flanagan ’12 Katherine Fretz ’12 Kim Ga Yong ’12 Caroline Grady ’12 Peter Harrison ’12 Anna M. Hashmi-Queen ’12 Seung Tae Hong ’12 Samuel Jackson ’12 Gabrielle R. Jeliazkov ’12 Quinn T. Kliman ’12 Ho Yi Holly Lam ’12 Brenton Yue Law ’12 Cheryl Li ’12 David Lunn ’12 Chieh Luo ’12 Troy L. Maclure ’12 James M. Muirhead ’12 Zachary P. Santella ’12 Victor Shang ’12 David Shi ’12 Shade Souc ’12 Eugene C. Tang ’12 Karan Vats ’12 Yi Ran Wang ’12 Sanne J. Wijnands ’12 Zhengoi Yang ’12 Jihyun Yong ’12

AP Scholars with Honours Tszyinnatrin Cheuk, Grade 12 Julian Allen ’12 Jonathan Chan ’12 Shi Peng Chen ’12 Baldeep Dulku ’12 Daniel I. Gold ’12 Michael Groot ’12 Austin Huang ’12 Johnny Huang ’12 James J. Keech ’12 Woojung Lee ’12 Jonathan H. Lo ’12 Yi Luo ’12 Sunwoo Oh ’12 Marcel C. Sanati ’12 Sebastian E. Schickhoff ’12 Robbie Thomas ’12 Cole J. Turner ’12 Robert J. Wyatt ’12 Xiaoman Zheng ’12 AP Scholars Ji Youn Park, Grade 11 Isaac K. Chung, Grade 12 Stanley Du, Grade 12 Candice Ip, Grade 12 Byung Seo Kim, Grade 12 Ethan Lee, Grade 12 Victoria I. Lunn, Grade 12 Susanne A. Maier, Grade 12 Jinsu Park, Grade 12 Keiler J. Totz, Grade 12 Brian Yam, Grade 12 Yeonghwi Yoo, Grade 12 Le Yu, Grade 12 Gaoyu Zhang, Grade 12 Rebecca Berardelli, ’12 Oi Cao ’12 Nicole Chan ’12 Youxi Chen ’12 Hannah M. Clayshulte ’12 Cortney B. Ewonus ’12 Clayton J. Fair ’12 Logan Gilmore ’12 Isabella M. Holt ’12 Isailah Johnson-Ferguso ’12 Xiang Li ’12 Yanyan Li ’12 Yeu-Jeen Liao ’12 Ziji Lin ’12 Hannah R. Nielsen ’12 Claudia Oneill ’12 Olivia J. Pierce ’12 Alexandra Pollen ’12 Cassandra T. Quan ’12 Deryn E. Ramsey ’12 Johnathon Sipos ’12 Ariel K. Sorley ’12 Meng-Hsuan Tsai ’12 Oili Zhang ’12

AP Scholar Requirements

• AP International Diploma: must have a score of 3 or higher on five exams in four different subject areas, which include English, world languages, social sciences from a world perspective and mathematics/science.
• National AP Scholar: must have 5 scores of 4 or higher and an average of 4 on all AP exams written.
• Scholar with Distinction: must have 5 scores of 3 or higher and an average of 3.5 on all AP exams written.
• Scholar with Honours: must have 4 scores of 3 or higher and an average of 3.25 on all AP exams written.
• Scholar: must have 3 scores of 3 or higher on all AP exams written.