Four First-Year Students Win National AP Award

If Harvard offered junior or senior standing, four first-year students would have enough Advanced Placement credits to qualify.

The College Board, which administers the AP tests, presented June Shih '94, Robyn A. Yilmaz '94, and identical twins Ali and Hadi Partovi '94, with National Advanced Placement Awards indicating extraordinary AP achievement at an awards ceremony in Boston yesterday.

Shih, Yilmaz and both Partovis all took more than 11 of the three-hour AP exams. According to score results provided by the students, their collective average was more than 4.5 out of a maximum score of five.

The Partovi twins each took the same 14 tests, and their cumulative scores differed by only one point, they said. The 28 tests, taken over four years, cost more than $1600.

Their mother, Farideh Partovi, said she was suprised by the award. "When my sons first called me to tell me, I thought that it was a joke. I even called the hotel to make sure that there was really [an awards ceremony] there," she said.

None of the winners has decided yet to accept advanced standing. Yilmaz, who took 13 tests, said that she didn't even go to the meetings for eligible students. "I'm not taking sophomore standing," she said. "I don't want to rush through college."

All of the winners said that taking several AP exams was common at their respective high schools. Shih said that at her high school, "there is always somebody taking ten or so [exams], and everybody takes at least one."

Last year, 330,080 students across the country and abroad took a total of 490,299 of the tests. The winners of the awards had taken more AP tests and done better on them than anyone else in the nation.

This is the first year that the College Board has presented these awards. Out of the six winners, only two do not attend Harvard. They are enrolled at Princeton and the University of Illinois.