Senior Emil Annevelink, junior Hongyi Shi, and sophomore Xianglong Ni have qualified for the nationwide semifinals of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) Olympiad this year.

They will be participating in the next stage of the Olympiad in the near future, with hopes to qualify for the U.S. National Physics team.

In order to qualify for the semifinals, 3,000 high school students across the country took the Fnet=ma exam. Fifty LAHS students competed this year. However, only the top 300 scorers were offered the opportunity to participate in the AAPT Olympiad.

The Olympiad is used as a basis for qualification for the U.S National Physics team, which will be competing at the annual International Physics Olympiad Competition hosted in Tartu, Estonia.

“I think if I study hard enough I’ll be able to make it,” Xianglong said. “But I’ve still got a lot of studying to do.”

Students who make the cut for the National Physics team will attend the National Physics team “training camp,” a rigorous ten day physics trial at University of Maryland, where they will engage in intense studying, problem solving, testing and labs–all the while thrust into the heart of a scientific community.

In order to prepare for the coming trial, Emil, Hongyi and Xianglong have been studying independently out of college-level textbooks as well as problem packets provided by the association.