ENGLEWOOD, Colo. -- St. Mary's Academy is the only school in the country to have all its students in the Advance Placement Calculus AB and BC courses receive scores of 5 on the exams, according to the College Board.
A 5 on the advance placement exam is the highest score a student can get. The AP Calculus AB and BC are different levels of math courses. The AP courses gives students an opportunity to receive college credit while in high school. Those courses are taught by Iswari Natarajan at the all-girls high school.
"She really made the class interactive and she was so helpful outside of class," said student Maggie Dubus.
Dubus was in Natarjan's class for the 2016-2017 school year.
Natarajan brings a burst of energy to her classes each day, along with some math humor.
"I think one of the big things is to bring real life problems into the classroom and they see calculus in action, I think it’s much more meaningful and much more fun that way," Natarajan said.
With a background in electrical engineering, Natarjan has a passion for math and teaching. She said while she's always thrilled when her students do well on the AP exams, that's never her goal when she starts a new school year.
"It is that they truly see the fun in calculus, they understand it in a very meaningful way and they're ready to take it and make those connections in the real world," Natarajan said.
The College Board also said St. Mary's Academy is the only school in the world who have had all their AP calculus AB and BC students score 5s for the past three years while increasing class size at the same time.
