Malek is really just a normal 17-year-old Los Gatos kid—it's just that he's very, very smart.

The College Board's Advanced Placement Program recently awarded him the designation of AP Scholar with Distinction and AP National Scholar. This places him in a unique and select group of students who have completed a rigorous series of college-level courses. The AP National Scholar award is only granted to students who receive an average grade of at least a four on all AP exams and grades of four or higher on eight or more of these exams on full-year courses or the equivalent.

In 2002, according to the College Board's published data, there were no students in the world who achieved National Scholar recognition based on work through 10th grade. Malek has taken an astounding nine AP exams between eighth and 10th grade, garnering all fives on each of the tests—the highest possible score—and the Harker Academy junior hopes to keep the streak going.

"He's clearly a wonderful student, and very, very disciplined," said Harker's AP coordinator, dean of studies and registrar Heather Blair. "The thing that struck me about Alan from the beginning is that he's maybe more mature than other students his age, but more than that, he's just a nice person."

Malek credits his accomplishments to hard work and studying, and added that his AP classes are generally more interesting and move faster than non-AP classes. The only problem is that he's running out of AP classes to take at Harker, and he just entered his junior year.

"AP classes are intended to be college level, but they're not," Malek said, making the AP coursework sound easy, though it really isn't. His exceptionally high grade point average is yet another example of how his hard work has paid off.

"I don't mind studying. I don't hate studying. If I did, I couldn't work as hard as I do," Malek said.

Malek was accepted into the Stanford University Summer College in Palo Alto as an exceptional case when he was a freshman. His mother, Yuko Malek, said the program is normally only open to juniors and seniors and has tough criteria to be accepted. Malek earned seven units from the summer college that he can apply as college credit.

He also attended the Center for Talented Youth, a Johns Hopkins University program for gifted teens, during the summer prior to his freshman year of high school. As a result of his success in the program, he happily skipped his first year of physics and entered AP Physics B as a freshman. Yuko said she can rest at ease as a parent.

"I never worry about his homework," she said. "He always does his homework before the due date."

When he's not studying, he's working on a research project of mechanical systems based off of biological models for the Intel Science Talent Search, a scholarship contest he hopes to win. Malek said he often reads his notes, does homework and studies while in class. He's brushing up to get ready to take the SATs this year. Yuko said Malek is always carrying books with him.

"He takes his books to breakfast," she said.

Malek has plans to apply at sophomore standing to college and is thinking about going to Stanford, since his family says the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is too far away. Malek said he may want to become an engineer.

"I'm not as stressed out as you would imagine," he said. On occasion, Malek said he likes playing pool and video games.

"I used to be a hard-core gamer," he said. "But now I don't have enough time."

Malek is also learning to drive, but his parents haven't given him the keys to a car yet. He also has an appreciation for art, gained from an AP art history class he took his sophomore year, and has enjoyed touring art museums in London and Paris.

With his busy schedule, Malek doesn't have time for sports and rarely makes it to the gym. Fridays are Malek's free days from studying, but he spends about 60 percent of his weekends studying. Malek takes private shooting lessons from Army officer Major Andy Juknelis, as well as private piano lessons for his own enjoyment from a Russian instructor, Sofi Dediashvili.

His favorite teacher and inspiration was Dr. Randal Harrington, who taught him AP Physics C and was the former adviser to a Harker robotics club in which Malek participates and helped found.

Yuko said her son has always been clever with his hands, building the computer system in his room from scratch—without an instruction manual. Malek's father operates a computer software company in Campbell, and Alan said he models his father's work ethic.

"It has naturally become Alan's custom, too," Yuko said. "So both of them are working all the time."

Malek said the robotics club at Harker participated in a competition last year in which a remote-control robot they built was designed to stack and move tubs, and have a similar challenge this year. The team has received multiple awards for its successes in competitions. The current adviser to the club, Harker physics teacher Dr. Eric Nelson, had only positive comments about Malek.

"He's humble. He's extraordinarily bright, but a quiet and unassuming boy," Nelson said.

Yuko added that she was concerned that her son was working night and day on the robot last year, instead of studying, but his grade point average was still high, so somehow he managed it all.

The key to Malek's success is making sure he gets enough sleep.

"I do my homework quickly, and I get a lot of sleep," he said. "I need at least eight hours of sleep."