For Hub City Times

MADISON — Wisconsin’s 2016 Advanced Placement State Scholars are graduates from the Marshfield and Madison Metropolitan school districts.

State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Evers congratulated Michael Gui of Marshfield High School and Diana Li of Memorial High School in Madison for their performance on Advanced Placement (AP) exams that earned them the State AP Scholar Award. The College Board Advanced Placement Program recognizes the top male and female students in the 50 states and the District of Columbia each year for their performance on AP exams.

Students are chosen for the award for having scores of three or higher on the greatest number of AP exams and then the highest average score (at least 3.5) on all AP exams they have taken.

“Congratulations to Diana and Michael for winning this national honor for their accomplishments,” Evers said. “Both of these scholars are studying at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where their continued efforts will surely lead to success.”

The AP program offers students the opportunity to take college-level courses while in high school and to take end-of-course exams to demonstrate their mastery of the subject area. The AP program offers exams in 38 subject areas. Students earning a score of three, four, or five on AP exams generally receive college credit, advanced standing, or both at many colleges and universities worldwide.

In 2016, 2.3 million public high school students took 4 million AP exams. In Wisconsin, Li and Gui were among 40,457 students across the state who took 68,316 AP exams in May 2016. Among state students, 65.5 percent earned scores of three, four, or five on their exams, 9.6 percentage points higher than students nationally.