Wareham High School’s veteran and novice Advanced Placement (AP) students started their academic year with a bang, during the AP Kickoff at the school’s auditorium.

Among the people who spoke to the 107 AP students was Wareham Rep. Susan Gifford, whom Palladino introduced as “a big supporter of this program over the last four years.”

“At this point in time, you can’t just do enough to get by,” Gifford said. “That gets you nowhere. This is a global economy. You have to be able to compete.”

John Smolenski, Senior Field Director of Mass Insight Education (MIE), presented the group with some statistics of Wareham’s AP performance. Of the students who had take the AP test last year, 42 scored a 3 or higher, out of a possible total of 5, on the exam. This is the highest it has been, in recent years. This number, he said, qualified them to receive college credit.

“A 3 on the AP exam in Wareham is the same as a 3 on the AP exam in … private schools,” Smolenski said.

In some schools, scores of 4 or higher allows the student to skip the equivalent college course altogether.

The students who had scored a 3 or higher on their exams last year also got a surprise: a banner with their names on it, which will be hung in the school’s hallway.

But Assistant Principal Deb Freitas said later there were fewer students in this year’s batch of AP students. She said this is because there was an environmental science AP course they could not run this year, because it conflicted with the schedule.

“We can probably switch off next year,” Freitas said. “Instead of offering AP Chem, AP Bio, and AP Environmental Science all in the same year, we will probably off with those courses.”