South Brunswick Student 1 of 54 Teens Worldwide to Score Perfect AP Economics Score

South Brunswick, NJ - Michael Wu, 17, was feeling pretty confident when he walked out of the gym at South Brunswick High School last spring after taking the AP microeconomics exam.

“I thought I had done pretty well,” Wu said. “But you know, I thought I had maybe made a small error, gotten one or two wrong.”

What he didn’t know was that he got every single question correct.

Wu, a senior, is one of only 54 students worldwide to answer every question correctly on the 2015 AP microeconomics test, officials at South Brunswick High School learned Monday. A total of 322 students worldwide earned perfect scores on the 2015 AP exams.

South Brunswick High principal Peter Varela excitedly announced the news over the loudspeaker Monday.

“I was in band practice, so I couldn’t hear what he said,” said Wu, who plays the French horn. “Everyone started congratulating me, but I didn’t know what was going on. I said, ‘What did he just say?’”

Wu took AP exams in macroeconomics, statistics, chemistry, U.S. history, calculus and computer science. Here’s the kicker: When he was a freshman at South Brunswick, he took honors physics. At the time, he felt he knew the material well enough that he studied on his own and took the AP physics B exam. As a freshman. He got a 5, the top score.

He took the AP Calculus BC exam in his sophomore year, and scored a 5 on that, as well.

Math does just come naturally to him, he admits.

“I like how it’s logical and you can make sense of it,” he said. “You start from a small set of fundamental principles and from there you can come up with your own answers.”

“He’s an amazing student and economics teacher John Lolli is a special professor,” said Varela. “South Bruswick High School couldn’t be prouder.”

Wu was already offered a full scholarship to Rutgers Business School, but, like so many high school seniors right now, he’s waiting to hear back from other colleges, including his top choice, MIT.

“I’m thinking about economics as a minor, and majoring in computer science,” said Wu. “My dream job is to one day work for a tech company, like, say, Google.”

Photo: Michael Wu, who also plays ice hockey and lacrosse for the Vikings, with his parents, Helen and Larry Wu.