Vista del Lago student in Folsom receives perfect AP exam score — here’s how she did it

A senior at Vista del Lago High School in Folsom, Naysa Bhargava said she read the email in September to her father filled with shock and excitement. She forwarded it to her mother: She received a perfect score on her Advanced Placement computer science exam.

Statistically speaking, Bhargava amounted to 0.47% of all 2022 AP Computer Science A exam takers, according to an email she received on Sept. 16 from Trevor Packer, head of the AP program.

“You not only received the top score of 5, but were one of 369 students from around the world to earn every point possible on this challenging, college-level examination,” Packer wrote. “We applaud your master of the content and skills of this AP course and wish you many future successes.”

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Bhargava said she had not heard of a perfect score on an AP exam before and knowing that her hard work paid off was rewarding.

According to Kim Moore, Vista del Lago’s principal, last year the high school earned the College Board’s AP Computer Science Female Diversity Award for expanding young women’s access to AP Computer Science Principles (CSP). This award acknowledges Vista’s work toward equal gender representation in the AP computer science courses in the 2020-21 school year.

“Vista couldn’t be prouder of Naysa and the teachers that have supported her along the way to reach this achievement,” Moore said. “I know she has a very bright future ahead of her.”

Learning computer science

Doug Lewin is the AP computer science teacher at Vista, earning his degree from the University of Kentucky. He’s taught at Vista for approximately 13 years. Lewin said this is his first teaching gig, prior to that he decided to be a stay-at-home father after 10 years at Intel.

“Roughly 10 years ago, we said, ‘Hey, we need to be teaching computer science in classrooms, and we don’t have enough computer science classes in high schools,’” Lewin said.

In 2014, the College Board developed the AP computer science principles course first offered in 2016. The first exam was administered in May 2017, according to the National Science Foundation.

Lewin said his classroom arrangement is key to his students’, and Bhargava’s, computer science experience.

“A lot of times you learn by helping others,” Lewin said. “That’s the cool thing about this class. My classroom is set up like that. I have a pretty cool classroom, I have to say. My classroom is not your typical classroom.”

He said that collaboration is key to figuring out problems. He said Bhargava knew when to ask for help and sometimes had fellow students come to her and say, “I can’t figure this out, can you help me?”

“Mr. Lewin’s class really helped me put those concepts into application,” Bhargava said. ‘I’m a very application-based learner so, for me, that was a really, really helpful thing. I could see those applications used in a real-life example.”

She said she likes computer science because it stems from a love of mystery and puzzles.

“I’ve always really liked puzzles from a young age,” she said. “I think those critical thinking skills for me really translated because, whenever I’m coding, I like to think of it as like a big puzzle.”

Support files: Her family

Naysa Bhargava’s father, Kapil Bhargava, used to work at Intel and in computer science. She said this contributed to her decision to want to study it in the future.

She said she recalled him talking about work at the dinner table, and she would find herself intrigued by what he was discussing.

“It’s something that I definitely became interested in,” Naysa Bhargava said. “I’m more into the coding aspect. I think it’s a little bit different, but it’s still technology in general.”

She said that she’s interested in creating artificial intelligence to help people learn.

“Most of my extracurriculars involve teaching,” she said. “I’ve worked with a lot of students in general, and I kind of want to make a machine learning algorithm, or artificial intelligence algorithm, that can make education a bit more efficient in terms of different learning styles.”

One of Bhargava’s extracurricular activities involves teaching speech and debate to students in impoverished communities around the world with an organization called Cognitive Exchange. She said she used to teach at Mathnasium but now teaches at theCoderSchool. She taught children robotics over the summer, is president of the UNICEF club at Vista, plays piano and practices Indian classical dance.

“I like to plan things ahead,” she said. “If I know there’s a big test coming up, I will split up my studying over the week. I’ll try to study a little bit every day instead of cramming everything right before the test.”

Bhargava’s mother, Shalini Pandey, said she was excited when she received the news that her daughter earned a perfect score. She said her daughter is independent, and whatever her daughter does, she does on her own with no extra pressure from her parents.

“I want her to be happy,” Pandey said. “I want her to just go for her dreams and do the best or whatever she can.”

Kapil Bhargava echoed his wife in terms of support for his daughter in the future.

“Whenever you enjoy, you will be happy,” he said. “Anything you do, you cannot do with burden.”

Naysa Bhargava said she applied to approximately 15 colleges, but a lot of them are in the “maybe” pile. She said she has no dream school but wants to stay in California to be close to family.