<p>Welcome Dadotwoboys! Congrats on the great scores future NMSs! Woo hoo! Momfrom KC, we are twins again! DD also scored 196. It helps develop a plan. SATs (not ACTs) planned for March and May and Sat2s in bio and Math2 in June. Done. Whew. A bit of work and DD should at least break 2000, and I hope over 2100. It’s all good!</p>
<p>Congrats on the great scores some of you. Welcome Dadotwoboys! </p>
<p>Any of your Ds or Ss are taking IB program? Have you heard of “IB World Student Conference”? I’m waiting for my S’s PSAT scores so we can apply some summer program basing on his scores. Now he said he would like to attend this 5 days conference which costs $795. School will pay the most costs, we pay $150. Anyone knows it?</p>
<p>What summer programs do you recommend?</p>
<p>Midwestmom: S3 took the SAT a couple of weeks ago, he will take the ACT in February and we will go from there. He will take 2 or 3 SAT subject tests in May or June.</p>
<p>Yes, D will do ACTs. She usually does better on that than the SAT. </p>
<p>And no to IB; it’s offered at our school, but D decided it wasn’t the right choice for her and DH & I jubilantly agreed. </p>
<p>And thanks all for the congrats, but in D’s case that’s not a given until August. So keep fingers crossed!</p>
<p>Congrats, RobD!<br>
Midwestmom: We are in ACT land. S doesnt know anyone taking the SAT. S took the ACT as a soph so he could take dual credit courses this year, but no writing. He took it again this past Saturday with writing. Im really hoping this will be the end of testing, but he was so under the weather Saturday and exhausted from a swim meet the night before. He thinks he did fine, but he always says that. LOL His practice ACT scores were much higher than the SAT, so hell probably just stick with the ACT and not take the SAT I at all. Collegeboard is getting money from us on all the AP and SAT II exams though.</p>
<p>Put us down for the ACT in Feb as well!</p>
<p>D took the SAT in October and the ACT in December (took 2 SAT subject tests last spring). Both my older ones did better on the ACT than SAT, so I am curious how the youngest will do, though her SATs were several hundred points above the other two to start with. I am hoping this will be the end of her testing, except of course AP’s in May and the silly Pennsylvania PSSA’s. No IB at our school; it’s not very common in our area.</p>
<p>I know I took both ACT and SAT in Ohio years ago, although maybe the SAT was for national merit qualifying.</p>
<p>New to CC!
My S just received his PSAT score 237, so wonderful score I guess. He also finished his SAT1 last Oct with 2370. So, we’re quite relieved. However, we have one most concern - the number of his AP classes. He is only taking two now and that’s all so far. In his school, most kids finish 3 or 4 by Junior year, so 2 is not too terrible, but still short compared to other competitive students. Do you think it is a good idea for him to do self study on couple of other APs? He is going to take 5 more APs in his senior, so will this be ok? Or APs taken in Junior are more important? Appreciate the comment!</p>
<p>I don’t understand the desire to self-study an AP in a subject that a student was not also taking a comparable class. For example, my HS did not offer AP classes, but I did take calc and honors English, so I took the AP calc AB and English lit tests. I would not have thought to self-study completely for Psych though. If he is taking a rigorous course load and plans to take 5 APs next year that sounds fine to me.</p>
<p>Oh, and congrats to your S on the great test scores!</p>
<p>Congrats to your S on the great scores!</p>
<p>I’m not clear what the benefit would be to take the AP test without taking the class. I think the point of APs is to take a challenging course load (and to learn). The AP tests count for placement or waiving requirements or getting credit, but my sense is that the effort of taking challenging classes (relative to what is available at your school) is what colleges are looking for IMHO, but i’m new to this so i could be off base here.</p>
<p>Welcome to all the newbies! And congrats on everyone’s scores. I’m really hoping the new principal comes through and gets us scores before winter break.</p>
<p>So, ds made a 92 on the monster test. He didn’t seem thrilled, but I’m really happy for him. He’ll end up with a low A in the class, and that’s fine with me. Tomorrow is BC Cal, and he’s studying hard for that tonight. It’s a two-parter, and he thinks this first part will be the tougher part. The teacher already has annnounced a 10-point curve for the second part. How does he know already??? Whatever.</p>
<p>Tomorrow is a half-day for finals so ds and I will go to lunch at our special place. It’s a long-standing tradition to take the boys for pizza at the beginning and end of each semester. My boys are much more forthcoming if food is involved. :D</p>
<p>I don’t have an opinion on the AP self-study thing. I never knew you could do that until joining cc. I have to say it sure seems impressive to me! If only I were an adcom … 
I do think ds1’s heavy AP load probably was impressive to adcoms. After his junior year, he earned that AP Scholar with Distinction honor (I think that’s the one; you had to have an avg of at least 4 on six tests), and I think that, coupled with good SATs and being a URM all made for a strong application. Ds2 is taking one less AP course, so I don’t think he’d even be eligible for that award. But he tests better than his brother, so I’m hoping he’ll have that going for him.</p>
<p>We’re not even considering the ACT. I’ll think about that, I guess, but probably not a lot, lol.</p>
<p>My S got his PSAT score from his school. It’s 225 with 6 wrong at Cr Reading and 1 wrong at Writing. Last year he got 194, about 31 increased.</p>
<p>What summer program can he get in basing on this score?</p>
<p>Whew! Thanks for the replies! DD had not planned on taking the SAT, I am not sure many here do. She did better on the ACT PLAN than the PSAT, so we are just thinking ACT. All of the schools she is looking at accept both. No need to invite more stress!</p>
<p>I took both years ago, but I am not sure why. I grew up in Alaska, so maybe because most of my schools were out of state and located all over the US? Seems like everyone I knew took both. </p>
<p>I think that as DD narrows things down she will be looking at schools with with looser gen ed requirements. She scores very high in reading and writing, but much lower in math.</p>
<p>What are your kids using to prepare for the ACT/SAT?</p>
<p>^^^The consensus on the SAT/ACT board seems to be do as many OFFICIAL practice tests as you can.</p>
<p>For the PSAT, S did the question of the day for about 6 months, then he did the online test on Collegeboard to see his weaknesses. The month before the test, he worked on vocab from the sparknotes list and did 3 practice tests from the SAT bluebook. The results: he got the exact same score on the PSAT that he got on that first online practice test he took cold!!! He did perfect on the vocab, but worse in the passage questions, and much worse in the writing! He does have a much bigger vocabulary though (and so do I!)</p>
<p>S didnt really prep for the ACT. He took the one practice test they handed out at school, and then I checked it and we went over his mistakes. I bought him the Office ACT Red book, but he never opened it. Ill tell you in a couple weeks how that worked for him!</p>
<p>pigmom – that is a great score and should certainly help with admissions to competitive summer programs, but those apps are lengthy and, depending on the program, consider other criteria (essays.) The ones we did last year were more intensive than the actual college app he had to do for dual credit. S did two engineering programs (UMich and the Naval Academy) so he could explore the possibility of studying engineering. There are different programs for different interests . . . what are your S’s interests? I have a couple of lists that might be helpful if he’s interested in science/math. There’s also a summer programs forum here on CC. Some of them have early January deadlines, so if he’ll be applying, you’ll want to get them rolling as they generally require recommendation letters from two teachers and the GC, as well as transcripts, essays, etc.</p>
<p>Welcome everyone!</p>
<p>D finally saw the GC yesterday but the score reports weren’t where they were suppose to be so D will stop again this am and hopefully dhe will come home with the code or scores.</p>
<p>D will also be taking the ACT in Feb, she did a practice test and did well but she will begin prepping Thursday when break begins…I paid for the ACT prep online because it included one scored essay.</p>
<p>Some asked about self study for AP classes, I think that if you take an AP courses through an outside source like FLVS then it would matter to Colleges. I am not sure how heavily Colleges would weigh just taking the exams, even if you score well. D is in her second AP course, technically she is still a Soph, but she is adding AP Micro in the Spring through FLVS. I am not sure If she will take anymore because she is focusing on DE classes, maybe AP Gov.</p>
<p>D got a 97 on her APUSH semester exam! What a relief!</p>
<p>Congrats to all on all the great test scores!!!</p>
<p>Both kids are mentally drained at this point. D14 emailed me from school to say that she didn’t cry in her Hnrs English class for the first time in a week. S13 is hearing from all of his Sr friends about College Apps, etc and is starting to feel some pressure.</p>
<p>Brought myself to FINALLY check their grades…just to get a sneak peek…
Happy to say that S13 is maintaining his 4.8 and D14 has raised her GPA to a 4.33.</p>
<p>Christmas has come early :)</p>
<p>Great to hear about all the great scores, and so sorry to hear about the stresses all the kids are feeling. One more week and my D will be done with finals. I hope she can relax and have a nice break. </p>
<p>D is taking a class for the ACT by a company called ExcelEdge, which is only in Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, I believe. The class is held at her high school. Older son did Kaplan, but it was at a location that was farther away from home. She is doing the ACT twice in April, once through her school with no writing, and the National Test on a Saturday. She will also take SAT I in March. We are following the same dates as older son.</p>