This past Saturday, practically every AP English, math or science student at Ben Davis attended the first of three AP-TIP IN grant conferences.

Held at the ninth grade center at Pike High School, the conference was hosted by Notre Dame University. Ben Davis, as well as other west side high schools like Pike, Speedway, are participants in the grant.

Many teachers offered rewards for students attending, such as dropping their lowest test grade.

The main goal of the program is to increase the enrollment of students in math, science and English AP courses by offering a $100 incentive to students who receive qualifying scores (3, 4 or 5) on their exams.

Upon arriving, students walked into the Pike cafeteria, wrote their names on a name tag, grabbed a ticket that would allow them to collect stickers and be entered into the raffle and waited in line for a breakfast of muffins and orange juice.

The program offered a total of six sessions from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m., including a break for lunch and socialization.

The sessions were for classes from AP Computer Science to AP English Literature. Students interacted with teachers to brush up on existing skills and to learn helpful hints on how to conquer the exam.

The next conference will be held here at Ben Davis on Saturday, January 25.