Albert Gu

Sometimes in those brief periods—most likely half-seconds for some of us—when we can actually take a breath from schoolwork, our mind drifts back to our childhood: when life simply entailed school, at most 30 minutes of homework and several hours of free time.

Once again, a record number of students are taking a record number of AP tests, continuing a trend set since the school implemented its open access policy six years ago. This year alone, the school has 475 students taking a total of 1,064 tests. AP tests begin on May 2 and run through May 13, said Secretary/ CCC coordinator Bonnie Sheikh.

Once again, a record number of students are taking a record number of AP tests, continuing a trend set since the school implemented its open access policy six years ago. This year alone, the school has 475 students taking a total of 1,064 tests. AP tests begin on May 2 and run through May 13, said Secretary/ CCC coordinator Bonnie Sheikh.

Archery—one of the oldest, not to mention toughest pastimes, is featured prominently in many legends as a symbol of strength and skill. But in modern culture, it has adopted a reputation of being a easy game.

“Pssst … hey Susie, what’s the answer to question 3?” reads a comic strip from Calvin and Hobbes. The comic brings back a “nostalgic” view of traditional cheating—whispered conversations and quick peeks at peers’ papers. However, the abundance of technology in and out of the classroom has led to a vast increase in cheating techniques in recent years, although “old-fashioned” approaches are still widespread. A survey of 517 students done by the Falcon suggests that cheating is most prevalent on homework.

"Stop complaining; freshmen don’t have homework.” This was probably the most common phrase said to me during my first year of high school. As a lowly freshman, whenever I heard it, I would just nod my head and keep quiet. I remember my junior and senior friends would get annoyed if I even so much as mentioned having work. Excusing myself early from Robotics to toil over something like a pop-up book in World Geography was unforgivable.

After advancing from the county competition in April, 15 juniors traveled to Pasadena in early May to participate in the State History Day competition. Junior Steven Louie was a semi-finalist with his paper on Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and junior Shannon Galvin took third place, becoming the alternate to the national competition with her website on John Marshall and judicial review.

"All right everyone, take out the 2006 AIME so we can go over the answers!" yells junior Amol Aggarwal over the group of students settling into their seats in adviser PJ Yim's classroom. Slowly, they reach into their backpacks and pull out their tests, and the practice session begins.

After four years of taking rigorous classes and balancing schoolwork with other activities, senior Ashwin Siripurapu was recently named the valedictorian for the class of 2010, and Malika Kumar was named salutatorian.

Junior Annaliese Parker, frustrated with what she perceived as the restrictive system at SHS, transferred to Middle College earlier this year because she wanted more freedom. While on the campus of West Valley College this year, Parker has been able to take classes such as infectious diseases, human anatomy and counseling. Besides the required core classes—English and history—students get to choose what classes they want to take from a wide variety of courses, and even when they want to schedule them, as opposed to the high school's randomized schedules.

It is no secret that in the past few years, the competition to get into first-class universities has escalated. High school students burden themselves with extra classes and extracurricular activities in order to give themselves a little edge over their peers. Their parents are no less obsessed—they often attend getting-into-college seminars and enroll their children in expensive prep classes. Many expensive private schools have sprouted all over the country, from boarding schools like Phillips Exeter Academy to more local private schools such as Harker.

The math club has created an outreach program into Redwood Middle School this year, removing the need for Redwood to hire extracurricular math coaches. Students from the high school now run the entire middle school extracurricular math program, with the help of parent volunteers.

Although four seniors of the chess team graduated last year, the Falcons are still confident of their success this year with the emergence of rising underclassmen.

Some students may not realize a math club exists on campus. Fortunately for all the mathlovers out there, math teacher PJ Yim is attempting to change that.

Starting May 4, 441 students will be taking 919 AP tests at Saratoga, representing a slight increase from last year when 417 students took 905 individual AP Tests, according to College and Career Center personnel Bonnie Sheikh.

Critics of the United States’ education have long cited American students’ failure to compete in mathematics on the international level. Saratoga High’s math club, however, seems to have no problem in this arena. Since the beginning of February, the math club has been busy with several math contests and competitions. The most recent competition was on Feb. 28 when the club sent two teams of eight people to participate in the Stanford Math Tournament held at Stanford.

After being displayed in San Francisco for several months, poems about downtown Baghdad’s famous Mutanabbi Street, written last year by Judith Sutton’s Poetry 1-3 classes, are back at Saratoga High. The poems were on display at the Saratoga Community Library last year to commemorate the one-year mark for the tragic incident and were on display in the school library from Feb. 27 to Mar. 6 this year for the event’s second anniversary.

With the end of this year’s chess league, the Saratoga High team continued its dominance in both the league and tournaments, with a notable performance by freshman Brian Wai in the latest tournament. In the league, the team lengthened a string of wins by crushing Lynbrook 6.5-0.5, Cupertino 7-0, Harker 6-0, Palo Alto 5-1, Fremont 7-0 and Monta Vista 4.5-2.5. This is the fifth consecutive year that Saratoga has won the league, which consists of 10 of the best chess teams in the Bay Area.

As the holiday season approaches and the first semester of high school draws to a close, freshmen are finding themselves in need of a break from the stress of school. The Link Crew provided that on Dec. 11 with Cookies in the Making, an event where freshmen and their Link leaders decorated cookies after school.

Numerous studies done over the past few years have shown that the United States is significantly lagging behind other countries in math throughout grades 7-12. The U.S. was ranked 24th out of 29 countries in a study of world's wealthiest countries in of math literacy of 15-year-olds. How can it be that the richest country in the world, a society that places intense pressures on its children to be educated, is being overtaken by other countries in math?

Despite losing two highly-rated seniors last year, the chess team is confident they can win the league championship for the fifth year in a row. They have already defeated Leigh 5-0, Bellarmine 6-1 and Menlo Park 7-0.

When senior Aaron Garg walked into the spotlight of the McAfee Center on Sept. 28, he instantly felt all eyes turn on him. He was calm and focused as he prepared to begin his solo concert. As the orchestra behind him started to play, Garg lifted his Chinese flute and began the first song. Finally, after months of dedicated practice, his moment was here. In the show, Garg performed his solo debut “A Musical Journey Through East and West.” The California Youth Chinese Symphony (CYCS), a Chinese orchestra with about 50 members that uses traditional Chinese music and instruments, accompanied Garg.

By now, most upperclassmen are used to having class interrupted once or twice a year to vote for elections. However, this system may change soon if the election commission’s new idea works.

By now, most upperclassmen are used to having class interrupted once or twice a year to vote for elections. However, this system may change soon if the election commission’s new idea works. In the past, the commission would hand out slips of paper in manila envelopes, distribute them to every teacher and collect them all 10 minutes later, a process that was time consuming and disrupted the classroom environment.