James Clemens graduates at the Von Braun Center. (RECORD PHOTO)

MADISON – Seventy-eight students at James Clemens High School have earned 2013-2014 AP Scholar Awards (advanced placement) for exceptional achievement on AP exams.

“The College Board’s Advanced Placement Program provides willing and academically prepared students with the opportunity to take rigorous college-level courses while still in high school,” James Clemens assistant principal Kelli Nichols said.

In addition, these students can earn college credit. “About 22 percent of the 2.2 million students worldwide who took AP Exams performed at a sufficiently high level to also earn an AP Scholar Award,” Nichols said.

Josh Abreo, Katrina Avery, Sunny Chennupati and Lakshmi Subramani earned recognition as a National AP Scholar, which requires an average score of 4 on all AP exams and scores of 4 or higher on eight or more of these exams. Their average was 4.77.

AP Scholar with Distinction status goes to students with 3.5 scoring minimum on exams and 3 minimum on at least five exams. Others students at this rank are Alae Abu-Spetani, Thomas Bagley, Caleb Besaw, Yasanka Chalasani, Kiana Dowdy, Joy Gullo, Peter Jackson , Alexander King, Richard King, Matthew Kucera, Jacob Laney, Matthew Antigua, Allyson Mancuso, Isabella McLay, Rebecca Odum, Rahul Rameshabau, Dishant Shah, Emily Wittig and Dongheon Yeom.

For AP Scholar with Honor, students must receive an average score of at least 3.25 on all AP exams and scores of 3 or higher on a minimum of four exams. These James Clemens students are Victoria Avery, Jacob Garcia, Jesse Hartfield, Moon Su Kang, Mary Lutken, Patrick Murphy, Hae Oh, Emily Ong, James Pruneski, Michael Resnick and Alexa Wade.

Another 44 James Clemens students were named as AP Scholar with scores of 3 or higher on at least three AP exams. Their average score at 3.40 almost reached the next level of awards.

“Of this year’s award recipients at James Clemens, 42 are sophomores or juniors. These students have at least one more year in which to complete college-level work and possibly earn a higher-level AP Scholar Award,” Nichols said.