<p>I am looking for some advice for my daughter who just completed 10th grade. She does not do final exams well, despite both my husband and I working very closely for hours with her on studying this year. We quizzed her and she really knew the material. She just got her final grades: 3 Bs and 2 B+s (with final exam grades in the B- to C range; so you can see that her coursework going in was in the B+ to A- range). Two of the courses are Honors. This is very discouraging for her and I think she feels demoralized as she goes into junior year. We are not pushy about grades, but we don't think they reflect either her knowledge or her effort. (We also see the consequences of her GPA on college admissions.) We will also get her SAT tutoring because I don't expect she will do so well on those. She is the youngest of 3: the older two went to Wesleyan and U Michigan, and honestly, this child works the hardest, engages with the teachers and the course material, is very bright, and empathetic. I know she will be successful in life, and I tell her that frequently, but I am concerned about her self-image as a student.</p>
<p>Her math teacher talked to the guidance counselor earlier in the year about her needing extra time for tests and she is scheduled to have some testing in September at the school. </p>
<p>Has anyone else dealt with a situation like this, and is there anything else we can do to help her? Her friends seem to sail through with flying colors.</p>
<p>Are you concerned that she won’t get into a decent college? If so, I don’t agree. I’m sure many schools will accept your lovely D. </p>
<p>Have her take both the SAT and ACT…she may do better on one than the other. The ACT math is supposedly less “tricky.” But, have her do an ACT practice test to get used to the science reasoning section.</p>
<p>Can I ask you…were her final exams mostly “multiple choice” or “essay/short essay” style?</p>
<p>Did she not finish the tests? or not give complete essay/short essay answers?</p>
<p>Have you seen the actual test results? I would want to see them to see what’s going on.</p>
<p>I would also ask the teachers how other students did on the exams. I was once upset to find that my daughter only earned an 88% on a final where she knew everything-- and came to find out that it was the highest grade in the school. The finals here are not created by the school and the teachers have no authority to curve grades or throw out questions.</p>
<p>This was my D-- it was very frustrating, but she seems to have grown out of it and did very well this year, on school tests and on her SAT’s, so there’s hope! It turned out to be a combination of things-- 1. anxiety; 2. a visual processing problem that meant she could not understand scantron forms (the ‘bubble’ answer sheets used on most standardized tests); and 3. a tendency to overthink multiple choice questions. Once we found the processing problem, and corrected it (she gets to mark in the test booklet itself now), the anxiety began to fade and things got better. But it wasn’t until I started going through SAT questions with her that I began to understand the overthinking-- her intelligence, combined with her anxiety about doing well, was actually causing trouble! </p>
<p>I feel for your D-- she sounds like a wonderful girl! (Do you think she’s anxious about living up to the example of high-achieving siblings?) I’m guessing she will climb out of this over the next year-- and the testing at school might be a key.</p>
<p>In two cases (Chemistry and H. Italian) she did not finish.
In History (C+) she finished in plenty of time and thought she did well. </p>
<p>They were a combo of multiple choice and open responses. </p>
<p>I agree about following up and looking at the exams. I do not know how others did.</p>
<p>My largest concern is the disconnect between how much she studied, how much she seemed to know, and the final result. This mis-alignment is very demotivating. </p>
<p>The college thing that concerns me is that her final grades do not reflect her knowledge and her level of effort and engagement during the year. And a 3.1 won’t get her into our state university these days. I can’t believe - in looking at our three kids who seem to be equally able - that her options will be so much more limited than theirs.</p>
<p>I would definitely look into a full psychoeducational assessment from a testing psychologist. But also I would also talk to each of the teachers to find out what they see going on. The assessment would get at any underlying learning disability but the teachers will see the ‘symptoms’ which could be equally as useful. </p>
<p>So many possibilities when there is are these disconnects (that may be unrelated to learning disabilities): mindless errors, adequately communicating what she knows on the test or a higher level of understanding required than she or you realize, misreading instructions, and so on. It would also be nice to know how she did relative to her classmates rather than relative to some grade you think she should get (especially as grades vary so much by class, school, and soon…e.g. I had to smile at the comment above for example about 88%…in my world that would be an absolutely excellent top grade to receive!). If you were to discuss with each teacher I’m guessing you would uncover a pattern that grades alone can not reveal. And teachers have the experience of large samples so they may be able to see and describe something that others can not.</p>
<p>My D is very similar – except her finals and other tests are in the D - C range if they are Scantron tests. Her ACT scores were miserable, so this summer she will have a tutor for them and take them again in September. She agrees that she will do the best in discussion based classes, so she will be applying to test optional LACs this fall. If the third set of ACTs come back as better than embarrassing (by real world vs. CC standards), then she will apply to other schools which she may do anyway. California CSUs will be her financial and academic safeties, but she thinks they are beneath her (I don’t), but I tend to think they probably have more tests than papers which won’t work for her. My D’s GPA is a bit higher than yours simply because some of her teachers did not base most of her grade on the final, and the rest of her non-testing marks tend to be As.</p>
<p>I have considered neuro testing, but going through the school district would probably take a lawsuit, and private testing I am pretty sure would be cost prohibitive for us. I do know that her dad and his brother are terrible test takers, and I am horrible at remembering factoids but much better at concepts, so maybe D inherited some weak wiring. After one completes one’s education and professional certifications, how much does one REALLY need to be good at test taking? I’ve got a kid who will be fabulous on the job and can connect with people of all ages and backgrounds, but oh, the rocky road it will be to make it to those diplomas and certifications. </p>
<p>D has taken 4 - 6 practice ACT tests, so I have told her she needs to identify her problem areas. Does she run out of steam and make careless errors? Weak content areas? Are types of reading sections more interesting such that she makes fewer mistakes? General over thinking? Her essay score was much, much higher than any of the multiple choice, BTW. And now, she has the attitude of “I can’t do multiple choice” which is not exactly helping her, as I think anxiety also freezes her brain. </p>
<p>I read somewhere that yawning helps with anxiety. . . .D said it helped a little. . .</p>
<p>mom55, D had a Wechsler (sp?) IQ test-- hours of testing but it teases out all the different areas-- D has certain visual processing issues (she can’t do a connect-the-dots exercise!) She was at the very top (99th percentile) of the verbal things, at the very bottom (1st percentile) of things like copying simple drawings. </p>
<p>You could have the testing done by a neurologist over the summer-- our health insurance covered it. (We live near Boston so went to Children’s Hospital). Once we understood that piece, other things came clearer-- of course she was anxious, she was being faced with test forms that totally confused her. She had felt as if she must be stupid. Once she had the information in hand, she had to explain it to teacher after teacher–but that turned out to be a great thing. She started getting to know her teachers pretty well, got used to going in for extra help, and to figuring out how she could best learn things… which made her more self-confident and comfortable. </p>
<p>But one thing I discovered without outside help was the overthinking-- after her PSAT came back we went through the questions she missed and I started seeing the pattern-- the answers were so clear to her that she couldn’t believe they were right. It made the test seem too easy. She worked through a couple of practice SAT’s and got used to it and then she started doing much better on all multiple choice tests-- even…yes…chemistry.</p>
<p>Well, a VERY long post, all to say-- hang in there, I’m sure this is very fixable. (If I were you I’d get the SAT Blue Book now, let her do a test and go through the answers with her…it really is a pretty simple way for you to get an intuitive sense of what she’s missing. And it will come in handy this year anyway.) And-- I’d see if she can be tested ASAP-- because if she does need accommodations on standardized tests, it can take a while for College Board to deal with that.</p>
<p>*The college thing that concerns me is that her final grades do not reflect her knowledge and her level of effort and engagement during the year. And a 3.1 won’t get her into our state university these days. I can’t believe - in looking at our three kids who seem to be equally able - that her options will be so much more limited than theirs. *</p>
<p>Unless your state university is what your budget will only allow, I would try to move the focus AWAY from that school and on to schools that she’d more likely get accepted to. That will create a more positive focus and relieve any anxiety that she may have.</p>
<p>Also, be sure to apply to some early rolling admissions schools where she will get accepted. Those admissions in her pocket will both booster her feelings, but also soften any rejections that she might get.</p>
<p>What is your budget? Can you afford to pay more than an instate public?</p>
<p>Get ahold of that history test. She finished early, thought she did well, but just passed with a C+. Did she review her answers? I’d get that test and go over her wrong answers to see if she just “over thought” her answers or maybe there were some ambiguous questions on that test (that happens!!!) Or, maybe she inadvertently missed something that she was supposed to do and lost a whole bunch of points.</p>
<p>Thank you so much for taking the time to respond to my post. D has annual physical on Friday so I can bring up the testing with her doctor. We also live outside of Boston, and would appreciate the name of the doctor at Children’s. </p>
<p>I definitely agree that the first final to review is history, but we will try to get the others, too. I failed to mention the bright/inconsistent spot - her Honors English final was an A- (final grade B+) and she has that one.</p>
<p>I have been hesitant about bringing out a practice SAT because I don’t want to stress her out, but I think in preparation for the upcoming PSAT she may appreciate some prep. Would a PSAT tutor help in unraveling the problem, or is it a one size fits all kind of thing?</p>
<p>We can afford private college so there will be options. Most of her friends do very well in all honors classes so I anticipate some stress during the college application process as people get crazy about rankings, etc. Ugh.</p>
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