A handful of students achieve the legendary 5.0
Most people would agree that getting a 5.0, the highest grade point average possible at SCHS, is a nearly impossible feat. Last semester, however, a handful of upperclassmen succeeded in achieving this. Among these students are junior Jordan McGilvery, junior Mark Guevara, and senior Kentaro Tanaka.
Although she isn’t sure if this is the first time a student has gotten this GPA at SCHS, Candace Jiang, McGilvery and Tanaka’s AP Statistics teacher, said that a 5.0 is certainly rare.
“It’s very impressive. Definitely a difficult thing to achieve,” Jiang said.
In order to get a 5.0, a student has to take only AP and Honors courses and receive A’s in all of them.
“I enjoy learning, so even though the classes can be difficult, I don’t see that as a negative thing,” Guevara said.
Aside from doing the work, McGilvery, son of physical education teacher Tony McGilvery, believes that there’s a trick to getting good grades.
“Pay attention to things you don’t understand, and pick out what you need to study for,” he said. “It depends on the material. If it’s harder, study more.”
Guevara agrees.
“Also, try and find something about studying you enjoy,” he added.
Along with good grades, these students also participate in extracurricular activities. McGilvery is on the boys’ varsity basketball team, is the secretary of Key Club, and a member of a few other clubs on campus in addition to working as a trail guide outside of school. Tanaka is on the cross-country team and president of the Competitive Math Club. Guevara is on the badminton team and vice president of the Competitive Math Club.
Both McGilvery and Tanaka are planning to go to four-year universities after high school. Hoping to get an academic scholarship, McGilvery is applying to some Univeristy of California campuses and Ivy League schools. Tanaka, on the other hand, was accepted into the Massachusetts Institute of Technology through early action and is currently waiting for responses from Stanford and Harvard University.
Though he is proud of his grades, Tanaka says many students at SCHS are capable of getting a 5.0, but they are just taking a few regular classes, like physical education and unweighted electives, causing their GPA to be lowered.
McGilvery advises people to address their own weaknesses and manage their time wisely; on the other hand, Tanaka recommends others to do what they like.
“Don’t force yourself to take a bunch of AP classes just to get a 5.0. The time you spent studying for these courses could have been spent doing something exceptional, but if you like it and can handle it, take the AP class. It just all depends on what you want,” Tanaka said.