LI student aces chemistry Regents exam to win teachers 25-year-old challenge for $100

A Long Island high school student aced his Chemistry Regents exam and earned $100 when he beat his teacher’s 25-year challenge for the scrutinized state test.Jojo Yawson shocked his teachers at Baldwin High School when his test was the final one to be graded and came back with a 100 on the end-of-year exam in June.“When it came back with 100, my jaw almost hit the floor.Literally the last kid,” Yawson’s teacher, Anthony Simonelli, told CBS New York Friday.Yawson’s achievement comes as the state transitions to a new exam and begins phasing out the high school diploma-required testing altogether by 2028.Simonelli has pitted his students against the same challenge for the last quarter of a century — score a 100 percent on the final exam and be rewarded with a hand-delivered $100 bill at their front door.The veteran educator gave his students the challenge as an incentive for the test, seen as the hardest Regents-level exam in New York State.“I said, all right, here’s some motivation.

I’ll give you 100 bucks.Any kid who gets 100,” he told CBS New York.Yawson, a then-sophomore and motivated by the money, broke down the challenge to its core.“I definitely believed it was possible,” he told the Long Island Herald.

“You know, you just have to get all the questions right.Like, it’s not impossible.”“It’s mostly about just being very careful and not making any mistakes,” he added.

“That’s the hard part.”After the test, Yawson returned home believing he did not do well.“I thought I did terrible.I went home dejected.

I thought, I don’t know, I thought I missed at least a few questions,” he said.But despite his uncertainties, Yawson got a 100 on all parts of the exam, giving Simonelli the honor of delivering the prize, a signed $100 to his student.“It did matter a lot.It wasn’t in the back of my mind, it was in the front of my mind,” Yawson said about the money, which was engraved with a “Thank you” and his teacher’...