2014 Mooney grad gets top score on record number of AP tests
YOUNGSTOWN
Jack Higham has always been an all-star student.
He was Cardinal Mooney High School’s 2014 co- valedictorian. He graduated with a 4.67 grade-point average. And on top of that, he found time to be captain of the varsity tennis team and participate in many volunteer opportunities throughout high school.
But one academic achievement perhaps stands out more than the rest.
Higham, 18, of Poland, son of Karen and Richard Higham, took eight Advanced Placement tests and got the best possible score — a 5 — on all of them, something that Cardinal Mooney Principal John Young said is unique.
“I’ve been at this for 42 years — I was principal at Liberty and principal at Brookfield — and I don’t really remember anyone taking additional AP [tests],” Young said of Higham’s decision to take tests in two subjects that were not offered as classes at Mooney. “This might be the second kid in 42 years for me.”
For Higham, it was not about beating the academic competition or building that perfect resume for college applications.
“I just wanted to learn,” he said.
“For the ones that our school offered, I always wanted to challenge myself, and I felt like there was no better way,” he said. “The ones I took extra — European history and human geography — those are subjects that I love. ... It wasn’t a resume builder at all. I was just very interested in those subjects.”
“That’s why I took AP tests, too. I just wanted to learn,” Higham said.
AP tests, which are administered by the College Board, are taken by students after completing Advanced Placement classes, which are college-level courses offered by high schools and for which colleges can give students credit. About 4 million AP exams were administered in the U.S. last year.
Test-takers can receive a score between 1 and 5 on the tests.
Most students who take the exams receive a score of 3, according to data released by the College Board. In 2013, the most recent year for which data are available, nearly 59 percent of AP exam takers earned a score of 3, while just 14 percent got a 5.
Cardinal Mooney offers 12 AP classes. Of those 12, Higham took biology and U.S. history during his junior year, and then chemistry, calculus, English literature and composition and psychology during his senior year.
“I had never been exposed to it before, but after having a year of calculus, I learned to love it,” Higham said of his favorite subject.
He said he spent only about an hour each week from March to May studying for the human geography and European history AP exams, because he already knew a lot from reading about them as a kid.
Last year, just 12 percent of students in the U.S. who took the human geography exam got a score of 5, and the average score was 2.69.
Higham has the distinction of being named a national AP scholar, which the College Board awards to students who get an average score of 4 or higher on all AP exams they take, and also score of 4 or higher on at least eight tests — requirements that Higham exceeded.
“We’ve never had a national [AP scholar] before,” said Cardinal Mooney Vice Principal Joanne Carney Smith, adding that 11 other students were recognized as AP scholars this year.
Last year, 744 Ohio students were national AP scholars out of the nearly 100,000 students in the state who took AP exams, according to data from the College Board. Fewer than 25,000 students in the United States received the distinction in 2013.
Paul Gregory, who served as alumni director at Mooney for 25 years, said he was particularly impressed with the 2014 graduating class, which had 140 students.
“This number of AP scholars, and particularly someone with eight 5s — that’s unheard of,” he said. “We’re going to hear a lot more about Jack Higham in the future.”
Higham is now a freshman at the University of Notre Dame, where he is majoring in chemical engineering. Mooney prepared him well for the rigors of Notre Dame coursework, he said.
School, however, isn’t the only thing on his mind.
“I’m getting excited for football,” he said.