At Trinity College School, the Advanced Placement (AP) program offers an opportunity for enrichment, through a broad range of courses, to students who are motivated in a given subject area and who possess the learning skills to support advanced-level courses. This past spring, with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and all students working off-site, the 2020 exam season looked quite different from previous years. In May 2020, 140 TCS Senior School students joined the millions of students worldwide to write the College Board AP examinations, remotely, from destinations around the globe. Despite the different format of this year’s assessments, the AP exams continue to test students’ ability to perform in university level courses. They are scored on a scale from 1 to 5, with a grade of 3 indicating that the student is “qualified” and 5 indicating that the student is “extremely well qualified” at the university level in a given subject.

In 2020, TCS students wrote a total of 229 examinations, producing excellent results, with 29% of our students earning the top grade of 5 and 95.7% of our AP candidates earning a grade of 3 or better.

AP Capstone Results
2020 also saw the sixth cohort of students complete the two-year AP Capstone Diploma™ program. This year, three students earned diplomas, having achieved a score of 3 or higher in AP Seminar, AP Research and four additional AP exams of their choosing. Congratulations to Jayden Lefebvre, Han Zhi (Angie) Zhang and Tianyi (Jack) Zhang. The AP Seminar and Research Certificate™ was awarded to Nathanael Chareunsouk, Vanessa Fullerton, Jack Moser, Megan Titterton and Aidan Wylie, who each earned a score of 3 or higher in both the AP Seminar and AP Research courses.

AP Awards and Recognition
TCS is equally proud of the incredible efforts of our AP Scholar level award winners. This year, 12 students each earned a grade of at least a 3 on three different AP exams and were awarded the distinction of AP Scholar. Congratulations to Aya Al-Ali,  Kai Blackstock, Dylan Ceccato, Nathanael Chareunsouk, Vanessa Fullerton, Kyle Munns, Alexandria Northey, Roselle Torres, Alysia Wilson, Victoria Wilson, William Zhang and Hanzhi (Nicole) Zhou. 

Yipeng (William) Du, Ziyue (Loretta) Hu, Tristan Jin, Tiffany Pan, Ainsley Poles, Aidan Wylie and Michael Yip earned an average score of 3.25 on all AP exams taken, with scores of 3 or higher on four or more of these exams, achieving the status of AP Scholar with Honor.

Eight students received an average score of 3.5 on all AP exams taken, with scores of 3 or higher in five or more of these exams, and were awarded AP Scholar with Distinction. Congratulations to Yiran (Rita) Han, Grace Hodges, Jayden Lefebvre, Ivan Lipski, Muyao (Andy) Niu, Jaya Sharma, Han Zhi (Angie) Zhang and Tianyi (Jack) Zhang.

Four students – Yiran (Rita) Han, Jayden Lefebvre, Muyao (Andy) Niu and Jaya Sharma – earned the honour of Canadian National Scholar. To achieve this level of recognition students must earn grades of 4 or better on all examinations taken, and scores of 4 or higher on five or more of these exams. Each year only about 100 students in Ontario accomplish this prestigious level of distinction; 51 students have now achieved this honour in TCS history. A finally, congratulations to Grace Hodges and Jaya Sharma, who earned the AP International Diploma. This distinction is awarded to a student who earns at least a 3 or higher on five or more AP exams in three or more subject areas (with various stipulations and criteria).

Our AP students and faculty are congratulated for their dedication and hard work towards the AP program, as the academic challenges of these examinations extend well beyond the requirements of the Ontario curriculum.

A complete list of our AP Scholars is shown below. As in the past, their names will appear on the AP recognition board in the main hallway on the ground floor of the Fessenden Wing.

• Al-Ali, Aya
• Blackstock, Kai
• Ceccato, Dylan
• Chareunsouk, Nathanael SRC
• Du, Yipeng *
• Fullerton, Vanessa SRC
• Han, Yiran ** CNS
• Hodges, Grace ** ID
• Hu, Ziyue *
• Jin, Tristan *
• Lefebvre, Jayden ** CND, CD
• Lipski, Ivan **
• Moser, Jack SRC
• Munns, Kyle
• Niu, Muyao ** CNS
• Northey, Alexandria
• Pan, Tiffany *
• Poles, Ainsley *
• Sharma, Jaya ** CND, ID
• Titterton, Megan SRC
• Torres, Roselle
• Wilson, Alysia
• Wilson, Victoria
• Wylie, Aidan * SRC
• Yip, Michael *
• Zhang, Han Zhi ** CD
• Zhang, Tianyi ** CD
• Zhang, William
• Zhou, Hanzhi

* AP Scholar with Honor
** AP Scholar with Distinction
(CD) AP Capstone Diploma
(SRC) AP Seminar and Research Certificate
(CNS) AP Canadian National Scholar (at least a 4 on all exams taken, and scores of 4 or more on 5 or more exams)
(ID) AP International Diploma (at least a 3 or higher on five or more AP exams in three or more subject areas)

- By Suzy Hall, director of academic administration