<p>S took the SAT in May 09 (end of soph year), and the USH and Chem SAT 2 in June 09. Our plan was for him to retake the SAT spring of jr year and probably the Math 2 SAT2 in June, maybe one other SAT 2 while he is there. His school offers multiple sessions of the princeton review for free both in the fall and spring of jr year. Because of sports I don’t think S will be able to make any of the sessions offered. And to be honest, he did OK on the SAT last spring and I like the ziggi method discussed on this board so we will continue to work that all year. </p>
<p>Because of the AP tests he will be taking at the end of the year, we might have him take the SAT earlier in the year. Not sure yet.</p>
<p>D signed up to take the SAT in Nov. If scores are not good, she can retake next March. [ Dec would be too soon for a retake and Jan wouldn’t be good with end of term exams at school]. I think it is a good idea to get this out of the way now…typically May/June is very busy and this year, she will have AP exams, SAT II’s to add to all of the end-of-year stuff. So, getting SAT I out of the way will help…</p>
<p>nifty,
I’m not sure if it’s common or not. Our prep class is put on by the local Assistance League and is about 17 hours total. So, it’s more of an introduction and review than an intensive course. I know that the year my D1 was a jr, they didn’t do a timed essay. Her friends that took the course generally scored in the 1900-2000 range.</p>
<p>Our school just started offering an SAT prep class last year. It’s offered for a pretty low fee and taught by a couple of teachers that went to a Kaplan instructors training class. It’s nice and convenient for the kids and good for the school to brag about higher SAT scores. Of course, NOT playing the SAT game would be even better… We’ve decided to go with the PSAT, the November 7 SAT and then two AP’s in the spring. If the SAT score isn’t good then we’ll figure out what to do in the Spring. April, May and June are not going to be fun. :(</p>
<p>D1’s current plan, subject to change, is to do Math II in November, ACT in December. Depending on how she does on the ACT, she’ll either try the SAT in January or take another ACT later. May will be AP hell The June SAT date will be for the US History and possibly the Chem subject test. Doing the Math II last year would have been better, but there were conflicts with both the May and June test dates. </p>
<p>Since D1’s current first choice is our RD-only state flagship, she’s not considering ED. She’ll have time to retest in the fall if absolutely needed.</p>
<p>On another note, it’s been an academically rough year so far, all four weeks of it. AP Chem class level has been ratcheted way up as the teacher is still trying to get people to drop. Pop quizzes have been deployed, something this teacher has never done before. D1 is losing points over stupid mistakes, and can’t seem to get the hang of chem nomenclature. She insists she wants to stay in the class, that she can do it. We’ll see. In math, she’s had a tough time for some reason with the concept of limits. I’ve told her to go talk to the teacher so that he understands that she’s doing the work, not slacking off. </p>
<p>On the positive side, the ceramics class got new clay instead of the old crumbly stuff.</p>
<p>My D is in two APs like that…Once school started, I realized that getting a super high grade in the pre-AP versions would do a lot more for her GPA than doing not so great in the APs, but D wants to stay in the classes. I hope schools will respect the rigor of her courseload, because she could have ended up with a higher class rank with less work.</p>
<p>D1’s class rank is unknown and calculated in an unusual way. She attends a small magnet school housed at a large neighborhood school. The magnet school curriculum is heavy in AP coursework, the resident school isn’t. Yet the magnet and the resident school students are all ranked as if they were a single entity using unweighted GPAs across the board. I can’t remember if this is noted in the magnet profile. </p>
<p>Not that I’d prefer having class rank just for the magnet school alone. Like you said, missypie, it depends on adcoms recognizing the rigor.</p>
<p>S took honors chem last year with an a** of a teacher. I majored in chem for undergrad and thought (haha) I would be able to get thim through it. He ended up with the worse grad in his hs career (so far), a C+. I highly recommend switching out of a class asap anyone’s kid can’t get under control by end of Oct. The stress and final grade are so not worth it. S is in honors instead of AP physics this year and loving it. He feels like the smart kid. AP physics would have been exponentially harder. S has 2 AP classes, one honors class and 2 regular classes this year and despite having a heavy, heavy workload, loving school. I hope this translates into good grades.</p>
<p>Kind of interesting to see others facing similar issues. D came home with less than stellar scores on two tests this week (both AP courses) - we talked about potentially dropping at least one of them. What I say often falls on deaf ears…she doesn’t want to drop them. She feels like she can indeed pull her scores up by the end of the year. We’ll see how this goes…</p>
<p>H and I were just talking about the rigor vs the grade dilemma. I am sure D can easily get A’s in honors classes - but is likely to end up with at least one B with her current load. Could lower the GPA and possibly the rank (have no clue how they calculate this!)
Is this ok since she would be taking the most difficult curriculum offered? Or would it be better to drop to an easier class and get better grades?</p>
<p>I am pretty sure there’s not just one answer for this - for D, it seems like she’s enjoying the classes, although they are difficult. So, for now, she’s going to stick with it. Add to this, her GC is out indefinitely - she could have bounced ideas off of him if he were around…</p>
<p>My D would rather be in the AP classes among the brightest kids in the school - even if she’s not necessarily one of them! - than be in class with less bright kids. I’ve got to respect that. </p>
<p>We know one family who has so very very carefuly chosen their kids’ schedules based on the weighting of AP, pre-AP and regular classes so that they wil be at exactly the right level to give them the maximum points in their GPA…I mean, they’ve got it down so perfectly that they should give lessons to other parents after their kids graduate. But if my child wants to risk a lower grade in the most challenging level of class, I’m not going to stop her. (I may worry a lot and wonder if it will all be okay in the end, but I won’t stop her.)</p>
<p>Back to school night last night. Usually because of logistics the spouse misses D1’s back to school night, but was able to attend last night. As I expected, it was love at first sight with the utterly fearsome, terrifying, demanding history teacher “That man is a force of nature!” was the comment as we were leaving the classroom. There was an ovation at the end of the history teacher’s presentation…yet not all parents are so enamored of the man, because he is an incredibly tough grader. D1 got a 5 on the AP Euro test last year, and a C in the class second semester, and that was not because she was slacking off on coursework. She was far from the only kid in that situation. </p>
<p>Some kids in the school opt out of Fearsome History Teacher’s classes and take honors rather than AP. The FHT kids consider that a mark of dishonor. No idea how FHT’s tougher grading affects college admissions, but the school’s alumni invariably say that FHT is the one teacher over all others who prepared them for college.</p>
<p>That’s AP Gov at our school…known as the “GPA Buster” but the brighter kids wouldn’t be caught dead taking either of the easier options. Son got a C in the class and a 5 on the AP exam.</p>
<p>From what I understand, the colleges recalculate GPA, so even if the HS adds points for AP or honors it gets taken out for college admissions purposes. Of course, you still have the issue of whether the student has taken the most challenging corseload available and GPA will effect class rank. My S, who likes but doesn’t love math and science, (and imo has an apptitude for them) will probably never end up majoring in math and science in college. So he takes AP classes in the subjects of interest to him, history and english and sticks with honors or regular for the rest. </p>
<p>I know his last years chemistry teacher had a bad rep with even the teachers for gloating over the fact that so many of his kids do poorly. Like it is something to brag about. My feeling is, it is in part a reflection on his teaching ability. Water under the bridge, every teacher S has this year is a gem and he is loving school. I just hope he puts in the effort and takes advantage of these wonderful teachers.</p>
<p>Yes and no. From my son’s college search last year, here are three different methods that were utilized by three different schools that were otherwise quite similar to each other:</p>
<p>School A: Gives weight to all AP, pre-APs, etc.
School B: Recomputes GPA so that everything is equally weighted.
School C: Uses weighting for admissions, takes out weighting for merit scholarship consideration.</p>
<p>None of this was on the schools’ web sites…we only found this out from direct questions asked during visits.</p>
<p>missypie, in all my hanging out around cc and my S1 going through the whole app process (he’s now a college soph), I find myself <em>still</em> annoyed that colleges keep their GPA practices and formulas such a secret. Why? (other than encouraging kids without much chance of acceptance to apply anyway?) At some schools my S2 may look more competitive (if they count his many advanced art and acting/directing electives) while at others (maybe most?) his GPA may skip down a notch. Anyone figured this out? </p>
<p>We went to S2’s back-to-school day, too, and we’re really enthusiastic about his teachers, as is he. In fact, we moved him down in math level because he was just spending so much time on homework and studying last year in the accelerated Alg 2. It’s a risk–as it will look less rigorous on his transcript. But he’s more of an humanities kid and he’s taking 2 killer APs this year, so we hope it will all work out well. So far, the decision means he is much happier doing all the AP reading without the excess HW of advanced math, too.</p>
<p>Keeping fingers crossed.</p>
<p>It’s good to hear how all of your kids are managing junior year.</p>
<p>Sigh…D’s having a hard time with the AP Bio teach who apparently doesn’t “teach”. Two tests so far and not good grades. Did your kids use any other material to learn this subject? Any tips?</p>
<p>Tips for AP Bio…LOL, don’t take the class. Son took it 2 years ago and he was on the verge of failing the whole year. The teacher intentionally made it as hard as possible “so the kids will fall on their face in high school instead of in college biology.” The med school bound types did fine, but it was murder on everyone else and added a whole lot of stress to the year. Lesson learned: the '11 D and '14 D will not be taking AP Bio.</p>
<p>missypie - D so badly wants to take the class! I wish she would drop it - she’s stressing about the grades [ she is used to getting As pretty much all the time and this has been a rude shock thus far]. She did sit down and study hard for the second test -but she sounded so depressed in her txt message just now when she found out her score.</p>
<p>I looked around and found a site that has some chapter outlines and slides for each chapter - I’ll see if that helps her. Have also asked her to go talk to the teacher to see how she could do better…</p>
<p>arisamp, not AP Bio per se but D1 will use AP review books as another info source. I look over on the CC SAT/ACT forum to find what specific AP book is most popular or most recommended, since it seems to vary from subject to subject. Online can be helpful too. For instance, D1 was using online flashcards and Quizlet (I think that’s the name of the website) to drill on chemistry nomenclature. If you’ve got them, old college texts are another possibility, though bio has changed a lot since our college days. But calculus is still calculus. </p>
<p>D1 told me that some students buy a used copy of the APUSH textbook and then rip it into chapter-sized chunks. Then they can just tote along the current chapter(s) for on-the-go studying without lugging along the entire 2000-lb textbook (can you imagine how much these things are going to weigh when our grandchildren take that class?). I got a copy off Amazon for $5, s&h included. It was still kind of horrid to see it get eviscerated.</p>
The June SAT date will be for the US History and possibly the Chem subject test. Doing the Math II last year would have been better, but there were conflicts with both the May and June test dates. </p>