is anybody...

Prep School Admissions
21

<p>Don't scare yourselves. It really depends on the classes you're taking, and of course, your own abilities. </p>

<p>I took senior year at Peddie, and took four classes my first semester, and six my second. Some classes are obviously easier than others - I was doing about twenty minutes h/w a night for one class, and then AP Latin I had about a paragraph of Latin to translate per night, but I also had to memorise previous translations for the AP exam, and frequent tests, plus grammar exercises. History was mostly reading, I figure the ones that take the most time are math and science - I would spend about an hour and a half, maybe two hours, doing math homework a night, and could easily spend three hours or four working, if I wanted to get a topic fully solid. </p>

<p>The focus in a prep school as far as I could see was the emphasis in teaching time is on covering new ground. You cement that via exercises that evening, so you can move on the next day - if you don't do the homework, people aren't really checking and going 'bad child, no cookie for you' but you DO find it difficult to move onto an advanced area if you haven't really processed the information yourself. It's excellent preparation for college, particularly in the UK where almost all of your 'contact time' is lecture, and you have to understand and process the material yourself. </p>

<p>Basically, it depends on the classes you're in, and how 'smart' you work. Kids will cram hours in, but still have fun - three hours of sport, dinner, two hours of prep, maybe three, then bed, and then getting up early for school. You learn to make it seem less inconvenient - it just is a part of the environment. <em>shrug</em> As for fifteen page papers - ye gads! My senior thesis was bad enough, and fifteen page papers are a little irregular. I only write 2000 word papers at university, and then it's twice a semester per subject! :P </p>

<p>Chill. If you're smart enough to get those scores, and these schools think you'll fit, you'll fit. :) Just relax.</p>

22

<p>I really suggest that everyone not coming out of a feeder private school take a summer study skills program (Choate has a good one) before going to prep school. Let's face it, the kids who went to top privates all their lives have an advantage. The summer program I took really helped me enter hitting the ground running. The schools don't take kids who won't do well, but a boost helps.</p>

23

<p>My daughter, a straight A+ public middle school student, was absolutely stunned at the sheer volume of homework her freshman year of prep school. It took her 4-5 hours every night, and all day Sunday to get it done. She says that now she has learned to "study smart." She now triages her work- knows what she can ignore, what can be put off, and what needs a huge effort right now. She has also learned to study in the car, on the bus on the way to sports games, and lots of other strange places. Luckily, she finds most of it to be pretty interesting! She has managed to pull off a respecible A- average in mostly honors classes. I worry that my son, who is not as competitive or driven, will drown his freshman year. Although he is just as smart, I think that we will sign him up for less rigorous courses at first. We also learned that it helps to get some of the fall reading done over the summer.</p>

24

<p>i went to exeter summer school before going to hotchkiss, thought it helped a bit...although it was after all a "summer school" and was less rigorous, but i recommend you guys think about it</p>

25

<p>i went from about an hour to five at exeter... you learn to manage...</p>

26

<p>I believe the workload is very individualized. If one spends a lot of time posting on BB's like CC and having AIM conversations the amount of time they spend actually working decreases and the overall time spent on homework increases. For my 2 d's in both cases sophomore year was hardest simply because they struggled to fully grasp their chem class.... It meant having conferences with the teachers and putting in extra time with friends who "got it" Their senior years where they were taking 3 AP classes that they selected and were obviously talented went much better. Work smart and focus for the time that you are working and the load is more than bearable... not to worry... as a previous poster said, the school that accepts you is a pretty good judge of who can succed in their program. Besides for that.... they are extremely diligent about helping those whodo struggle in making the adjustment.</p>

27

<p>I'm not going to boarding school, but I think I'd be able to handle it. I don't go to a regular school. I go to class from 8-5 (no breaks, one 35 minute lunch) and I take 10 real classes (plus art, gym, health). I get home at 8pm and I start my work at like 9. I work into the middle of the night. I get an average of 4 hours of sleep a night. </p>

<p>It's tough, but it'll help me in college. And if I went to boarding school, the workload would be a breeze.</p>

28

<p>See, the point of a boarding school is that they <em>do</em> help you. Peddie: Got up at six forty five, showered, got to breakfast by seven fifteen, done by seven thirty, pick up books, maybe finish a chapter or whatever before class, first class at seven fifty. If you have classes all morning, you also have DMX - a free period for about thirty minutes in which some clubs meet, and then lunch at 12.30. Classes until three. Then either drama or sport - drama kids have a play each semester, and are in the theatre from three thirty to five thirty, usually. Sports teams meet at least three times a week, if not five times, and again, til five-thirty, sixish. Crew was the major blood-sucker of time; you were out there, five days a week, three til six, working like an eejit. </p>

<p>Seven til eight is free time - lots of rehearsals for bits and pieces, meeting up, hanging out, then eight til ten in the dorms for mandatory prep; you sign in, and are in your rooms in silence til ten, unless you're a senior, and have opt-out privileges. Ten to ten thirty - visitation, most nights, except for Saturdays where it's eight til eleven-ish, depending on what year you're in - where the boys can come to the girls' dorms, or girls to the boys' dorms, depending on which night of the week it is. Ten thirty til eleven is staggered curfews for freshmen through seniors - eleven fifteen is lights-out, and you sleep, get up and do it all again! </p>

<p>Saturday morning school - so classes are spread out, then you have Saturday afternoon, and all day Sunday, then Sunday study-hall, to get work done. It's really, really not that bad. Like previous posters have said, you learn what has to be done right that second, and what can be put off, and how much effort to put into assignments. I <em>did</em> write my senior thesis in the space of twelve hours, but at college, I've had three 2000 word papers in the space of two days, due in, plus regular assignments and reading. I think my roommate and I managed NO all-nighters during senior year at Peddie, including the winter-term, which is legendary for sucking, really, really badly.</p>

29

<p>i disagree with aliceCC...just an example one time
Due on wednesday
AP physics test
Physics chapter assignment (it always goes with the test)
AP Spanish essay
regular AP stats homework</p>

<p>due on thursday
AP econ test
AP stats test
English ticket plus 85 pages of reading (ticket is a 2-page paper that "allows you to go to class")
new physics problem set
study for spanish vocab</p>

<p>physics test typically takes me 2 hours to study for, and the hw problems took me like 3 and a half hours (that's 6 problem sets combined), you have to polish it and makes sure everything's right even if you did the homework regularly..The spanish essay took me an hour and a half to write...then another half an hour to polish up.... and that's 7 and a half hour of work right there....so assuming that I go back to my dorm right after sports at dinner and start at 7pm sharp...i would have finished at 2:30 am.....but then...adding the socializing and everything, i ended up going to bed at 4...</p>

<p>then the next day was brutal again, the tests and reading and ticket killed me...pulled an all nighter....</p>

<p>I dont want to scare you all, and even tho it's most of the time controllable, sometimes it's out of your control when all the teachers pile stuff on you the same time...and i find that more true at the higher end BS from my experience and the various experiences I heard from my friends...i always hear friends here at hotchkiss, at choate and deerfield whine about having to stay up and stuff but my friend's sister, who happens to be a junior at a academically-lesser BS(dont want to mention name) told me that she never has more than 4 hours of work a day.....</p>

<p>and the worst time, worst worst time is always when u are sick and miss classs and have to play the catch up games...SUCKS</p>

30

<p>The work load does seem to vary by school. We have friends at a less rigorous school who seem to have half of the homework for the same classes. The extra help bit is also true, in our experience. If you miss one day because of illness, the teachers will all set up individual appointments to help you with the material you missed. In one particularly difficult math class, the students were allowed one test retake per term, for any reason. In any case, students who return to visit after going off to college all note how prepared (therefore the word prep in prep school!) they were for college work, and how in many cases, freshman year of college was a breeze.</p>

31

<p>Again...while it can get pretty hairy later on...it's not what the 9th graders coming in should expect to see the day after orientation ends. Although the reality check for what BS students should expect to end up facing is informative and no doubt accurate, I also want to keep this real for rising 9th graders here who are expressing anxiety over this issue.</p>

<p>Just as they don't throw you into Calculus BC, they're not going to initiate you with workloads that you're incapable of handling. They may be workloads that you're unfamiliar with handling...but they're experienced enough to know what you're capable of handling. And just as you'll develop into someone who's ready to take on Calculus AP (or other high-level courses in areas where you're demonstrably gifted), you'll develop the ability and even familiarity with the kinds of incomprehensible workloads that the upperclassmen here boast about.</p>

32

<p>Dy'ermaker- that is true for traditional freshman classes. However, if you are a 9th grader taking an advanced math or science class (Algebra 2 and Honors Chemistry for example)- the teachers don't necessarily know (or even care!) that you are a freshman. I'm sure this differs from school to school. Also, freshmen meet very often with their academic advisors, who check on their progress and help them advocate for themselves if they fall behind due to illness, or overwhelmedness.</p>

33

<p>
[quote]
It's tough, but it'll help me in college. And if I went to boarding school, the workload would be a breeze.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Purpoise, if that's how much work you do at a "regular" school, then BS would not be a breeze, by any terms. BS gives you more workload, no question, so you would be staying up LATER doing homework. Period.</p>

34

<p>Note to self: do not take honors chemistry next year. Hopefully my geometry course will succumb to standards and I'll be able to place in algebra two. I'm working really hard in geometry this year, and I would hate to have to retake it.</p>

35

<p>Just relax about what you take and let them place you. You want a good foundation as you go forward. You'll be meeting up with many who went to very rigorous private day schools, and if you didn't, you want some time to adjust.</p>