A Baldwin High School student has won a teacher’s long-running challenge after earning a perfect score on New York’s Chemistry Regents exam—and a $100 cash prize.
Jojo Yawson surprised his teachers when his test, the last one graded, returned with a score of 100 following the June end-of-year exam.
“When it came back with 100, my jaw almost hit the floor. Literally the last kid,” chemistry teacher Anthony Simonelli told CBS New York on Friday.
Yawson’s perfect result arrives as New York begins moving toward a redesigned science exam and prepares to phase out Regents testing required for a high school diploma by 2028.
For 25 years, Simonelli has offered his students the same incentive: Anyone who scores 100 percent on the final exam receives a $100 bill personally delivered to their home.
The veteran teacher created the challenge to encourage students facing what is widely considered one of New York’s toughest Regents-level tests.
“I said, all right, here’s some motivation. I’ll give you 100 bucks. Any kid who gets 100,” Simonelli told CBS New York.
Yawson, who was a sophomore at the time, embraced the challenge and approached it in straightforward terms.
“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.”
The real challenge, he said, was avoiding even the smallest error. “It’s mostly about just being very careful and not making any mistakes,” Yawson explained. “That’s the hard part.”
Still, when the exam was over, Yawson went home convinced that his performance had fallen short.
“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 recalled.
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His doubts proved unfounded. Yawson scored 100 on the exam, allowing Simonelli to make good on his promise by presenting the student with a signed $100 bill.
The reward was a major source of motivation. “It did matter a lot. It wasn’t in the back of my mind, it was in the front of my mind,” Yawson said. The bill was marked with a “Thank you” message and Simonelli’s signature.
“Of course, it’s about the money,” Yawson joked. “Getting a perfect score—if they gave me $100 for getting a 50, I would have got a 50. It’s about the money.”
Yawson briefly considered putting the cash in a frame, though he may spend it instead. After all, this is not his first perfect score on a Regents exam.
As a freshman, he also earned a 100 on the Biology Regents.
His mother, Ama Karikari, said she was especially proud that her son achieved both scores while using the learning accommodations available to him during testing.
“I believe that it should really inspire students with accommodations and their families to recognize that having a learning difference can mean learning with excellence,” Karikari told the outlet.
Simonelli said Yawson may be among the final students to have the opportunity to win the challenge on the current Chemistry Regents. The exam is being redesigned to align with New York’s P-12 Science Learning Standards.
“There’s no way that the last kid that I’ll ever have the chance to have a 100 literally did it,” he said.
Ex-Gov. George Pataki has ripped the change that dumbed down the state’s high school diploma requirements being phased out as the Board of Regents looks for alternative graduation requirements.
“Getting rid of the Regents is incredibly stupid,” Pataki told The Post last week.
“It seems like the Education Department’s main function right now is to disguise the fact that too many New York State schools are failing to educate our kids,” he said.
“So instead of doing the appropriate testing so that corrective measures could be taken to improve [performance], they simply get rid of the tests to hide their failure.”