Yihe Zhang `26 earned a perfect score on the AP Computer Science Principles exam.
“It was my first AP test and while I didn’t think it was that difficult, I know that it’s easy to make minor mistakes that impact your score,” says Zhang. “My friends were proud of me and I am proud of myself. This was a great way to start my career at Country Day.”
Last school year was Zhang’s first year at Country Day; she previously attended public school in Beijing, China.
“There were a lot more students at my school back in China. Here the teachers are all very nice and help you when you need. They can pay attention to the individual students. I also like the school culture here more. I am starting to know even more people and feel like I'm part of this big community.”
Zhang said that she likes the programming part of computer science and finds it “interesting to learn new codes. During [computer science] class I tried to read and understand other people's codes, which I think helped me on the AP exam because part of the test involves you reading and understanding code, and I had already done that exercise in school.”
This semester she is taking engineering with Jamie Back, AP biology, and AP calculus. When asked what advice she has for any other students who would like to do well on AP exams, Zhang said to “relax. It’s really not that hard. Follow along in your classes because there are a lot of chances to practice so by the time it’s time to take the exam you should be well prepared.”