<p>Reeinaz: Congrats on the increase!!</p>
<p>Vandy: We have had the no video games on the weeknights rule since the kids (of I should say boys since my daughter never played them) were young.</p>
<p>Midwestmom: I was told that kids should take both, see how they do and then focus on that one. I think I heard that boys and math-type kids do better on the ACT. So maybe if math is her weekness she should try the SAT.</p>
<p>reeinaz⊠Grats on the big improvement!!!</p>
<p>vandygrad87 - thanks, thatâs how Iâm going to look at this - I did not even mention to her that the GC called and gave me the code. Iâll let her see the scores and digest, and then just try to be supportive and encourage her to prep for the spring runs at the SAT and ACT.</p>
<p>If I could figure out how it is that she always did better on above level tests than grade level tests⊠but here we are and these are now grade level, and nope, sheâs not doing as well as she used to.</p>
<p>So no PSAT scores here, GC was in a meeting all dayâŠmaybe tomorrow. On another note DE grades are in Dâ13 got her first C ever, heck she has only had two Bs, in her into to Chem lectureâŠshe had the third highest grade in the class! We considered withdrawing from the class but I feared that would look worse on her transcript, almost like quitting and her GC agreedâŠwe hope it will be a life lesson for her. Her other grades were and A and B in Chem lab. (2nd highest grade in the class)
After the devastation waned, we sat down and went through the stats of previous Duke applicants both acceptances and rejectionsâŠI think it helped to her to see she is still within their stats and that even without the CâŠor heck even with all Aâs nothing is guaranteed for Duke.
Overall I am happy with her recovery. Going through this now makes me remember the grade time she got a grade other than an A, it was 5th grade and we were in Japan. D came from school hyperventilating and in tears she got a C on a math test, she then went on to say that it was open book but she did not use the book because she is âgiftedâ and gifted kids shouldnât need the book, I told her that being smart doesnât mean you know everything and knowing how to use your resources is just as important as being smart. Her recovery that time was much longer, requiring both a talk with her Gifted teacher, who explained not all Gifted kids get all Aâs and mostly due to not caring âŠD was flabbergasted and her teacher explained the test was open book because it wasnât all covered in class.</p>
<p>I do think she had the worst chem professor ever and I am considering filing a complaint with the Dean, I know others had already approached the Dean and he said you had to wait until grades were posted. All semester he never answered questions then would give bad information, waited to post the study guide for the final on the day before (he said Tuesday that he thought he had, yet D had emailed him on Sunday inquiring and he never responded) then during the final, the class was not conducive to test takingâŠapparently another student turned her test in 10 minutes into testing, D said she plans to retake the course, then continued to flip though papers and shuffle through her Backpack for the remaining time. D thought she might have been preparing for her next classâŠbut it left D unable to focus the entire time. I donât expect Dâs grade to be changed but I also donât think this professor should be teaching.</p>
<p>OkayâŠsorry for ranting but I donât want to put any pressure on D and poor DH feels guilty he was deployed and unable to help.</p>
<p>Lots of great news!</p>
<p>PCP - So happy to hear the news on WashU!</p>
<p>Reeinaz and MWM2013 - What fantastic improvements!</p>
<p>I declare today Hug A Junior Day/ Ds came home and said somebody is going to lose it at his school before the end of the week. One girl was crying in the hallway because sheâs so stressed with all the papers due and finals later this week and next. 
Ds is holding up well. Iâm glad that heâs talking about it.</p>
<p>D has the APUSH semester exam today and two exams each of the remaining days this week. I hugged her before she left this morning. She is trying desperately to turn her first 9 weeks B+ APUSH grade into a semester A. She has a stack of notecards a foot high she has been reviewing for days. Good luck to all who are taking exams!</p>
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<p>Agreed. That tearful girl was my poor D last week, as she was dissolving under the stress of five tests/quizzes in one day⊠the day she had a field trip! Luckily, with support, these kiddos are resilient and will bounce back. </p>
<p>My D is doing her usual push to bring a few Bâs up to Aâs. I donât think sheâs gonna make it this time with Physics though. A B in Physics is all right though, itâs a tough subject, and she likes it and thatâs more important to me anyhow. I wish she didnât do this slack off and then catch up thing though. I donât want it to come back and bite her in the butt.</p>
<p>I canât believe it is mid-December of their Junior Year. I have woken up the past two nights with stress dreams. Thank Goodness I can come here and let some of it out so I wonât freak out D more than I already do. I was just laying in bed this morning before I got up thinking that at this time next year, some of our kids will be getting early acceptance letters. Blows my mind COMPLETELY.</p>
<p>Public service announcement: </p>
<p>If next year you donât want people bugging your kid about whether he/she got into School X or School Y, then tell him/her not to tell people where he/she is applying. In college apps as in other areas of life, discretion can be a good thing. :)</p>
<p>My prayers go out to all of the stressed out kids and parents. I recently heard about an elementary school teaching yoga to all the kids to help relieve stress and I thought âWhat a good idea!â My kids are runners and I always know when it has been a particularly stressful day by how long and hard they run! At least the Christmas break will give everyone a chance to decompress!</p>
<p>Vandygrad: youâre not alone. I made the fatal mistake last night of perusing the early decision drama thread and then popping over to a couple of the college threads of schools that D2 has on her list. Now, Iâve been through this before & I know that even as things stand now, she should get into at least half of the schools on her list no problem. BUT. Suppose thatâs not the school she likes best. Suppose the school she loves rejects her. Blah blah blah. Maybe thatâs why I woke up at 4:30 and couldnât really go back to sleep. I am a dumb bunny if Iâm starting this stuff now. </p>
<p>BUT I am making sure that I keep it all out of D2âs sight. Once Friday afternoon rolls around her stress will drop dramatically. Currently the math teacher is trying to kill all the juniors with a ridiculous amount of work; the good news is that D2 is able to keep it in perspective to the rest of hercourse load & isnât letting it stress her out tremendously. But I did see a number of FB posts about the class from her friends with times of 1:30am. </p>
<p>YDS: excellent advice. Not quite sure if D will be able to do that with her close circle of friends, but Iâm pretty sure she wouldnât be sharing with anybody else anyway.</p>
<p>SO glad to hear that I am not the only one who has had issues sleeping
The past 2 weeks have been filled with so many tests/projects/APNRâs/essaysâŠI canât wait for Friday!! </p>
<p>RobD: I am having the same feelings about Sâs #1 choice. I had a dream a few nights ago that we were dropping him off at his 3rd choice (a VERY good school IMO) for Freshman move in and he just looked so sad I woke up wanting to cry.</p>
<p>Youdonâtsay: I am liking your thoughts on âdiscretionâ!! Will need to talk to S about how to handle all of this next yearâŠalthough everyone at school pretty much knows his #1 is Stanford. HmmmâŠmaybe I will buy him a Duke t-shirt to wear around school to throw everyone off???</p>
<p>All in all, I miss the days before Christmas when the biggest issue was running out of frosting while decorating the Gingerbread house or sugar cookies.</p>
<p>Thankfully, we are all blessed to have each other to vent to :)</p>
<p>Gosh, I guess that I am lucky???</p>
<p>Son generally only does what is required of him for class, nothing more, although he reads on his own nightly. Refused to open the PSAT prep book until the night before. Did not bother to tell us about the free 2 night PSAT prep class the school offered. He just rolls with the punches and gets his work done with little fanfare. Accepts the Bâs that come his way.</p>
<p>Already took the ACT and scored a 30. Wonât try the SAT or try a second sitting of the ACT. No reason for it. Not interested in attending an LAC so we are not chasing merit money. Doesnât have a clue as to what schools are âprestigiousâ so he is happy with my very unprestigious suggestions (Montana, Wyoming, Ole Miss). Will probably end up applying only at state schools with rolling admissions and merit.</p>
<p>No stress here.</p>
<p>Haystack, my S sounds much like yours. He is taking an average course load at a very average HS, so he doesnât have to stress much to keep his grades up. The only thing that he really âcaresâ about at this point is his music. Not interested in the college search, or studying for SAT, or joining ECs at school. Weâre hoping for big music scholarships at conservatories so, in the end, grades and test scores really wonât matter for him. </p>
<p>But I do have sympathy for the kids and parents for whom grades and test scores are a big deal. It can be very stressful, if that is your chosen playing field. I just pray that kids arenât burning themselves out in HS instead of just having fun and enjoying life. Lifeâs too short!</p>
<p>@Reeinaz, You are a model parent with full of encourage. My S sometimes told me he got 98 of our 100, but I still blamed him why lost 2 marks. My son also read Fan Fiction. I tried to block all those stuff on his computer, but he seems fixed it easily.</p>
<p>I read the threads of Accepted/Rejected and got confused. Some kids who got very low SAT like 1965 and SAT II 600ish are still got accepted. Some kids have SAT 2400, but rejected. So frustrated results. I real donât know what patterns do they have. I canât imagine how can we cope with such situation next year.</p>
<p>My S who is a freshman in college was laid back too. D2 is more like me - stressed out a lot! I got a text from school that said 227; they passed out the PSAT scores at lunch. No way she would have been able to keep that to herself at the lunch table.</p>
<p>Similar to the marketing e-mails from colleges, she keeps getting invites to Harvard athletic events. Her skills are not up to Harvard levels, and she doesnât want to attend Harvard, but it is amusing to get them.</p>
<p>Luckily, D2 really is fairly numb in terms of âprestigeâ on her college list. As far as sheâs concerned the dozen schools on her list are all pretty equal right now based on one thing: what sheâs heard/researched about their English & writing programs. Who is ranked where doesnât enter into her calculus. But there are some lottery schools on the list. Thatâs where my stress comes in ;)</p>
<p>Sheâs pretty much the same way about clothing, media etc. One of the easiest teenage girls everâŠ</p>
<p>Mamabear: woot on the 227. Scores are supposed to be distributed this week. I havenât gotten a text yet. WaitingâŠ</p>
<p>Wow Mamabear, 227! Thatâs great! </p>
<p>Vandygrad87~ I have been the same way. After reading some threads yesterday all I could think about was that next year at this time we will be in the thick of it. It seems so unbelievable. I am almost hyperventilating thinking about the year ahead. </p>
<p>I have been staying away from CC so as not to drive us all crazy, but now that we are closer to the whole process I think I will have to be a frequent visitor. </p>
<p>I am very proud of DD. She has really turned things around this year, and should finish with six A grades(including Alg II!), and two Bs. She has worked her tail off in Chemistry, but I think an A is out of reach. She is sitting at a 3.25 after a not great first two years, so this will definitely help her GPA. She is looking at small LACs, but is already convinced that she wants to go to Carleton. I think that having contact with some grads has helped to keep her eye on the prize, but she has a long way to go. While she is both stressed and excited about the whole college thing, I can tell she is going to drive me crazy. I am type A, she is not, and learning how to step back and let her handle things is going to be a big lesson for me. I hope with both make it!</p>
<p>Midwestmom, You might want to encourage your daughter to consider St. Olafâs. Itâs in the same town as Carleton and is really a charming and supportive school and not nearly as competitive. We took a couple of our kids to visit schools in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area and I was very impressed by the information session at St. Olafâs. If it was the right fit for one of my children, I would feel very comfortable with the choice. Honestly, my kids and I werenât inspired by Carleton. Given, we visited during the summer, but the information session seemed pompous and the campus is very random, not as well designed and attractive as some of the other schools we visited. My favorite on our trip was Macalaster. My D13âs favorite was Grinnell.</p>
<p>Midwest, ds1 is a deliriously happy sophomore at Carleton so feel free to PM me any questions!</p>
<p>Ds2 came home from practice, ate and then said he had to take a nap before he could start studying. He stayed up later than usual last night (10:30) working on a big English essay. I didnât realize until tonight that the âfinalâ is not only 25% of the semester grade but also 40% of the last six weeksâ grade! WTH? I think thatâs too much emphasis to put on one test. He said the kids who took it today got a 35-point curve. How hard is this test, for goodness sake???</p>
<p>YDS: I feel your pain The kids just got home from practice and D14 said she was exhausted. So I asked her, âwhat time did you finally go to bed last night?â she replied with â2ishâ :/</p>
<p>S13 is busy calculating what HW he needs to do and what quizzes/tests he needs to study for this week to maintain his GPA.</p>
<p>Please LordâŠhelp me survive until Friday.</p>