On top of the world: Albuquerque High senior is one of the most proficient AP Spanish students

Last Monday, Sinahi Oaxaca got an email from the College Board, the organization that offers Advanced Placement exams across the country and beyond, with a subject line reading “Congratulations on Your Perfect Score!”

At first, she didn’t think much of it — many of her peers at Albuquerque High School have scored all five points possible on their Spanish Language and Culture exams, and the College Board sends a lot of emails, so she glossed it.

But when she got to school, she was met by her teacher, bilingual coordinator and principal congratulating and cheering her on.

“ ‘No — you got a perfect score,’ ” the senior recalled them telling her. “I was really surprised.”

According to the email, Sinahi, 17, is one of fewer than 250 students across the world to get a perfect score on the exam, a grueling exercise in writing, speaking and multiple choice questions she completed in early May.

While the exams are scored on a scale from 1 to 5, there are many more points possible across almost 70 total questions, which are then put through a weighting system that spits out their final scores.

Sinahi didn’t miss a single point. And according to the email she got from the College Board, only about 0.14% of 2023 exam-takers scored as highly.

“She was like, ‘Oh, OK, I just did my best. I didn’t think it was going to be that big of a deal,’ ” Albuquerque High bilingual coordinator Fabiola Espinoza recalled Sinahi saying. “It is a big deal.”

Spanish is embedded in almost every aspect of Sinahi’s everyday life. She code-switches during mundane conversations at school; at home, she speaks it with her parents, who aren’t fluent in English; and she’s been enrolled in bilingual APS programs most of her life.

“I’ve never seen myself not speaking Spanish,” she said.

Spanish was her first language. But knowing it fluently, she said, doesn’t guarantee a perfect score on the exam — she still had to work for that, practicing all year with her AP Spanish language and culture teacher Sergio Soto.

Once, he invited his students to come in on a Saturday to spend several hours drilling for the exam, which Sinahi described as the turning point in her test prep.

“It’s a great, great pride as her teacher,” Soto said, originally in Spanish. “Sinahi is … very outstanding, very hardworking, very responsible, so honestly her score didn’t surprise me, because I know her capabilities.”

With a GPA well over 4.0, Sinahi is no slouch. She’s been in gifted classes for most of her academic career, and has taken at least six AP and honors courses throughout high school.

She’s also got more than a head start on a career after high school.

Sinahi’s dream is to become a nurse practitioner, an occupation she’s already getting hands-on experience in at Albuquerque Public Schools’ Career Enrichment Center and that she’s slated to take licensure exams for next summer.

She first thought of going into medicine in middle school. But as someone who’s had to translate for her parents what they’re being told at the doctor’s office, Sinahi feels she could bring a special, bilingual skill set to the care she’ll be able to provide.

“Having another language and being able to connect to people with a deeper understanding … would be helpful,” she said. “You get to know them better.”