The hard work put into learning and studying college level material in high school last year at Seneca Valley has paid off for the students who were honored as “AP Scholars” last week by the educational organization.

Precisely one hundred juniors and seniors from the 2015-2016 school year qualified for various degrees of the prestigious award, and that centennial number is even more astounding when its taken into account that only a fraction of all AP students decide to even take the exams.

Forty-four Senior High students qualified for the AP Scholar award, and twenty-one more scored high enough to be deemed AP Scholars with honor. Regular scholars and those with honors had to average a 3 or a 3.25 (out of five) respectively on their tests. Scholars with honor additionally had to get at least 3’s on four or more tests, while Scholars were only considered if they took at least three total exams.

Some students even managed to win the National AP Scholar Award by averaging a four on all tests taken and scoring four or higher on a whopping eight tests total, according to the Seneca Valley official website.

Another thirty-five students finished their testing season as AP Scholars with distinction. These students had to take at least five exams with scores of at least three and they had to average a 3.5 on all of their exams combined.

As the Advanced Placement program remains on the rise, and more and more kids not only take more classes but more exams each year, last year saw very large amounts of students find success on various types of tests in many different classes.

The increase in AP numbers makes sense for many reasons. For one, the incentives provided by taking a secondary-level class in high school are certainly helpful for students who plan to attend college after high school. Paying a few hundred dollars to get credits now certainly is more favorable than paying thousands of dollars in tuition just to take a class that you have already mastered.

And given the fact that there are more kids taking AP classes now then ever before, new curricula and thus tests are added to the Advanced Placement roster almost every year. For example, students wishing to take AP Psychology and its corresponding exam are now able to at Seneca Valley in an online, cyber course. Blended courses, which combine in-school and online learning, are another avenue for students to take the college-level high school classes.

Numbers are expected to go nowhere but up as Seneca Valley High School continues to utilize the Advanced Placement system to the benefit of students who certainly seem to thrive on it.