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QUINCY, ILL. -- The competition to get into college is fierce these days.

Giving students a leg up in that competition is something Quincy Senior High School has tried to do and it is paying off well for the school.

Students at QHS consistently score higher than the state average on the Advanced Placement (AP) tests issued by the College Board. In 2012, of the 119 QHS students that took the AP test, 79.8 percent of the students scored a 3 or higher on the test.

In fact, the students of Quincy High that have achieved a 3 or higher score is over 11 percent higher than the statewide average and over 17 percent higher than the global average.

According to Assistant Principal of Curriculum and Instruction Jody Steinke, one of the keys to the success of these students is the school's commitment to training its AP teachers.

The school goes above the minimum requirements for training and sends all of its AP teachers to an intensive week-long series of workshops.

Steinke says that the school is offering 14 AP courses for the 2013-2014 school year.

Those courses include:

Art History
Studio Art - 2-D Design
Language and Composition
Literature and Composition
Psychology
European History
United States History
German
Spanish
Statistics
Calculus AB
Calculus BC
Chemistry
Physics

Getting students ready for college is not the only way the Quincy High students are excelling. The school recently took second place in the IHSA Regional Scholastic Bowl.

Team Co-Captian Caleb Fischer was the leading scorer for the team.