Cicero-North Syracuse High School senior earns a rare “perfect” score on Advanced Placement Exam

The North Syracuse Central School District is celebrating high school senior Ashton Murdock for earning a perfect score on the Computer Science Principles Advanced Placement (AP) Exam in the spring of 2023.  AP exams are scored on a scale of 1 to 5. Ashton not only received the top score of 5, but was also one of only 459 students in the world to earn every point possible.  “This outstanding accomplishment is likely a direct reflection of the top-quality education being offered at Cicero-North Syracuse High School. We applaud Ashton's hard work and the AP teacher responsible for engaging students and enabling them to excel in a college-level course” said Trevor Packer, head of the Advanced Placement Program.

Students who succeed in Advanced Placement are not only more likely to succeed in college, but have the chance to save a significant amount of time and money by earning college credit or placement.

Colleges and universities around the world receive AP scores for college credit, advanced placement, and/or consideration in the admission process. 

Ashton began exploring the field of computer science after talking to some of his friends about the course. He said, “Many of my close friends were planning on taking AP computer science in 11th grade and they talked about how they loved the teacher, Mr. Harbinger, whom I'd met a few times while attending Cool Kids Math Club. I heard from my friends that computer science was very similar to math, my favorite subject, in how it is about languages that use a lot of operations and how it requires a lot of problem solving, which made it seem fun to me.” 

When Mr. Harbinger heard about Ashton’s accomplishment, he commented on the news saying, “Ashton's success is no surprise. He's smart, works hard and truly values learning in its purest form. You know that Avengers quote ‘Our very strength invites challenge’? Ashton is like that; he excels in math and computer science and does not rest on his laurels. He looks for challenges because he sees them as opportunities to grow and learn.”

When asked about his plans for the future, Ashton says he’s still exploring his options:
“I'm planning on going to Onondaga Community College for a two year general education in science and math then transferring up to more specialized schools and degrees in the field that I decide on…I've heard good things about software development as a career and I'm also interested in neuroscience which has a branch called computational neuroscience, so it's possible that I will choose a field based around it, but I haven't fully narrowed down the search yet.”

The district is proud to share this news, and is excited to see where the future takes this bright student. Ashton will be recognized for his outstanding accomplishment at the NSCSD’s October 23 board of education meeting. 

To learn more about AP, please visit exploreap.org.