Madeline Khoo

As students are being informed whether or not they received perfect scores on their 2023 AP exams, Ayala was able to have two students that received perfect scores on their AP Research exam. Lukas Cao and Ky-An Dinh, both students of Mrs. Barreras’ AP Research class, were able to receive full points in all categories of the AP Research rubric and thus earn a perfect score. Pictured (left to right): Lukas Cao (12), Mrs. Barreras, Ky-An Dinh (12)

With the start of the school year, 2023 AP exam scores are in the back of most students’ minds as they begin with a fresh start to their new set of AP courses. However, students who received perfect AP scores on their 2023 exams received emails of their accomplishment only recently. At Ayala, Lukas Cao (12) and Ky-An Dinh (12) were among the 356 AP Research students who received a perfect score of the 30,000 students who took the exam.

The AP Research class is set up to focus primarily on the AP exam submitted at the end of the school year. This includes researching a topic of choice, preparing a 4,000-5,000 word research paper, and delivering a 15-20 minute presentation. In order to receive a perfect score, this entails receiving full points in all categories within the rubric. Between the presentation and the research paper, receiving a perfect score is possible but is difficult to achieve. 

“When I was writing my paper, my goal was to aim for a five, but I didn’t expect to get a perfect score,” Cao said. “I feel like nobody expects a perfect score because AP research is a rubric.” 

However, behind the perfect scores, the class comes with hurdles throughout the research process. 

“None of the information that I was researching really answered [my research topic], so I was really scared of how my methodology and analysis was gonna turn out because I think I ate more than I could chew,” Dinh said. “It really took a long time, but I’m happy that it worked out.”

With not only one but two students at Ayala who earned AP Research perfect scores, it is important to point out that they both came from Mrs. Kimberly Barreras’ AP Research class. 

“I was honestly really shocked because only 350 students out of 28,000 people got a perfect score, so seeing that there were two of them, I was really shocked and also really excited for them,” Barreras said.

Although last year was her first year teaching the course, having two students be able to achieve perfect scores encourages Mrs. Barreras to continue her methods to hopefully increase the amount of students that are able to score within the “perfect” criteria. 

“The biggest thing that I enjoy is allowing the kids to have freedom to choose whatever topic they want and just seeing the completely different ways that they go with their topic [because] every single topic is completely different,” Barreras said.

As for those who currently take AP Seminar and are planning to move forward in the AP Capstone program, don’t fret and don’t be afraid to ask for advice from those who came before. 

“The advice I would recommend for AP Research is to embrace yourself. Embrace your topic. Fully immerse yourself into it,” Dinh said.