AP Latin Examination — 2024

The College Board awarded four Emerson Latin students a score of 5 on the 2024 AP Latin Examination — the highest score the examination offers. In 2024, fewer than 12 percent of the roughly 4,300 students who sat the examination worldwide earned a 5. The AP Latin Examination is widely regarded as among the most demanding of all AP examinations: it requires sustained command of Latin grammar and syntax, close reading of original Vergilian and Caesarian prose and verse, and the ability to produce analytical writing about Latin literature under timed conditions. A 5 does not come from preparation alone; it requires a genuine command of the language and its texts.

Each of the four students arrived at the examination by a different road, and each road deserves to be noted.

Susie Yang and Gene Yang began Latin without any prior instruction. They completed the full language formation sequence in thirty weeks of once-weekly sessions — a program that typically requires two to three years in a boarding school setting at five classes per week. They then completed the AP Latin curriculum in a further thirty weeks at twice-weekly sessions, finishing just before the May examination. Their score of 5 was earned at the conclusion of an accelerated formation that covered, within roughly a year and a half, what most serious Latin students take four years to accomplish. Both attend Stanford Online High School, based in California, which they take part in virtually from Seoul.

Hunjae Lee came to Emerson Latin with a foundation already established. He advanced quickly through the intermediate and upper levels, completing the AP Latin program on schedule for the May sitting. For Hunjae, the additional challenge was not the pace but the language: his native language is Korean, and his engagement with Caesar and Vergil required him to operate simultaneously in Latin and English throughout. He did so with sufficient command to achieve the highest possible score.

Jerome Kwon brought solid grammatical preparation from Daegu International High School, but had not yet encountered the sustained reading of original Latin prose and poetry that the AP examination demands — the close, interpretive engagement with extended passages of Caesar and Vergil that boarding-school students spend a full academic year developing. With three months remaining before the examination, Jerome worked through the AP curriculum systematically and earned a 5.

Emerson Latin congratulates all four students on a result that reflects the seriousness of their preparation and the quality of their Latin.