<p>tx5athome - Are you planning on having him take the SAT later on? If so, make sure he brings the PSAT score report home this time or get in touch with the counselor to get a copy. The college board site has this feature called My College Quick Start where they enter a code from their score report and it tells what questions were answered right, wrong, and omitted and the difficulty and what was being tested. And it also gives a study plan for the SAT based on that.</p>
<p>Kid also took it last year as a freshman, school also tests all sophomores and all juniors but you have to pay $16.
The results booklets were given back to all the kids.
He did well , a few points above NM cutoff for our state. But he did better on 8th grade SAT.
Go figure.
I did dig out the book and put it on his desk, but it got quickly covered but all the heavy
textbooks he brings from school. Not sure he will look into it .</p>
<p>Ah, itās Homecoming time in Texas. Those of you in TX know what I mean. For those of you in the rest of the world, just google ātexas homecoming mums.ā Itās good for a laugh. Anyway, S came home and announced that he had a date. She is a senior! We know her so were ok with it. Monday, took S to the PTA mum shop to purchase monstrosity (see google reference above). Find out that senior mums are $55 and up! And, while standing in line to check out, S receives text from the girl in question saying āDonāt buy a mum. I found another date.ā Poor S, he tried not to be upset, but I could tell he was bummed. But, good news, came home from school yesterday and anounced that he is going with a good friend (a junior) who didnāt have a date and that they were going to make mums/garters for each other from scratch (saving us big bucks). Ah, the high school dating scene!</p>
<p>My feeling on dual enrollment and taking college classes while still in high school in general is that if your child is at the top of his/her class and a candidate for top colleges, then it is not worth time to take classes from community colleges or even most state colleges/unis. The level (and the material covered) at these colleges in general are far below the level at top colleges. In fact, the child may not even be prepared to take the more advanced classes at his/her eventual college. My opinion is based on my childrenās experience at a community college, a state uni, an Ivy, and a top tech college.</p>
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<p>This was not at all our experience with our D1, who is now a freshman at a top 10 LAC and doing very well there. She took 11 college classes at our local state flagship (University of Minnesota-Twin Cities) during her junior and senior years of HS and did very well there, under a program in which the state picks up the tab for qualifying HS students to take college courses. The courses were rigorous and demanding, far more so than the IB courses that would have been available to her at our local public HS. Many of the courses at her LAC are even more rigorous and demanding, as she and we fully expected; but she started college far better prepared to study independently, organize her work, and manage her time the way a college student would than if she had spent her last two years in the local HS moving in lockstep with the other kids in her class, with the material dribbled out in 50-minute daily sessions and homework parceled out in similar fashion. What she learned in her accelerated beginning and accelerated intermediate French classes at the U allowed her to test into advanced French at her LAC; so that in effect she learned as much French in 2 semesters of accelerated study at the U as she would have been expected to learn in 4 semesters at her LAC. Her intro political philosophy class at the U was as rigorous as any intro-level philosophy class at her LAC. Some other classes were not quite at that level, but in my judgment all were better than what she would have gotten in HS, which is the appropriate standard of comparison. Now I will say we werenāt seeking to transfer the college credits (sheād have entered as a second-semester sophomore had she enrolled full-time at the U instead of going to her first-choice LAC); at most sheāll be able to use her U classes for placement purposes. But the main thing is she learned a ton, far more than in standard HS classes (even at the IB level), and just as importantly she learned college-appropriate study and time-management skills, and entered college as a freshman better prepared than the vast majority of college freshmen coming straight from HS.</p>
<p>I canāt speak directly to the community college experience, but I gather theyāre of very mixed quality. We do know some people who have been very satisfied with what their kids got out of some local community colleges, and some of those kids have gone on to do very well at top colleges and universities. Others have been less satisfied. But to me the question isnāt āhow do these community college or local U classes stack up against the classes at the college my kid is aiming for?ā but instead ādo these classes add anything significant to what my kid is already or otherwise getting out of HS?ā If the answer to the latter question is āYes,ā then itās hard to see why you wouldnāt consider your kid better off for the experience.</p>
<p>megpmom</p>
<p>Wow! I goggled and have never seen anything like it. Very cool (says the parent not paying for a mum).</p>
<p>Glad your son got a date so quickly. The ups and downs of teen dating :)</p>
<p>Texas mums - all I can say is, āWowā. Seems fun, but also a bit stressfull. And expensive. </p>
<p>We have an option to take AP Bio with or without a dual enrollement at a local college. Same class, same labs, just pay for the college credits. Itās a good option if you are looking for ācheapā college credits in your non-major. However, if you are a science or potential bio major then you should not take the college credits as most science departments will not accept them. My kids also have the option to take Spanish 5 at the college 200 level. Since they are not going to be Spanish majors, it might be worth them taking the class just so they can finish up their language requirements earlier in college.</p>
<p>bclintonk,</p>
<p>My post only reflected our familyās experience with four colleges. Iām glad things worked out for your D1. As one of the top 30 public colleges, the University of Minnesota is not grouped with āmost state colleges/unisā. As pointed out elsewhere on this forum, the AP/IB classes are taught at an āaverageā college level, so Iām not surprised that your D1 found her college classes more rigorous than her high schoolās IB offerings.</p>
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<p>I agree, but we also need to rack and stack this offer against other opportunities such as sports, research and other ECās available to our kids. All these activities are competing for time, a very precious commodity.</p>
<p>Thanks Reeniaz! We remembered that my son also took the PSAT as an 8th grader so we dug up that report, signed into College Board, got his scores from last year AND looked at the problems he missed.</p>
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<p>Iāve never been fully persuaded that AP/IB classes are really college-level at all. But maybe itās that āaverageā college level thing; the only college experiences Iāve had have been at top colleges and universities. The other observation Iād make, though, is that typically these classes cover the same material in an academic year that would be covered in a college semester, so even if the material is at the same level, itās taught half-speed. In my Dās case, she took Accelerated Beginning and Accelerated Intermediate French at the University of Minnesota, each class covering the same material in a single semester as is normally covered in a two-semester college sequence. Usually people say a year of HS language instruction is roughly equivalent to a semester at the college level; she was doing double-speed the normal college level, or quadruple-speed the normal HS AP/IB-level. Now thatās rigorous!</p>
<p>Ds just did the practice PSAT in the booklet. Heās reasonably happy with his score but is really mad for misreading one of the math free-response questions. I say itās a good lesson to learn now ā slow down!</p>
<p>Homecoming tonight :)</p>
<p>Kelowna, hope your S has a great time at homecoming! ANd I hope you get some good pictures beforehand. Itās so fun seeing them all dressed up.</p>
<p>Ah Texas homecomingā¦</p>
<p>We did homecoming last week, the āmumā thing is purely a Texas tradition and they get bigger every year. DS took a junior girl that he is good friends with. They didnāt make their mums from scratch (readā¦didnāt save any money on that one!!!). But they did look darling all dressed up. First year DS could drive and therefore pick up his date - a bit of a teary milestone at our house to see him pull out of the driveway instead of coordinating drive times with us. </p>
<p>On dual credit coursesā¦</p>
<p>My daughter (freshman at A&M) took five or six dual credit courses. She made sure they all transferred to colleges she was interested in. All her courses were taught at the HS but were on a list of courses that universities agreed met the transfer requirements. The list of transfer credits is divided by university and lists specific course numbers for the dual credit course and the corresponding course at the specified university. </p>
<p>Dual credit has been great for her, she was completing done with English, Political Science, Government and Spanish (all core requirements) before arriving at A&M. Her main drive was to take fewer credits her freshman year while she was adjusting to college level course work and living on her own. She is taking 4 classes but has enough credits to be a semester ahead. This will again give her the ability to take one less course the semester she takes organic chemistry. </p>
<p>Her academic advisor did tell her to not take dual credit for courses that were required in her major as they are often prerequisites for other courses and should all be taken at the same institution. </p>
<p>Dual credit has served to take some of the real or perceived pressure off her - she likes the idea of having to take only 4 classes the semister(s) she is taking really tough ones.</p>
<p>Homecoming is still two weeks away here. My D went to a sweet sixteen of a good friend from middle school last night. Most of her middle school friends are scattered between different high schools, so it was fun for her to see them again. On another note, I canāt believe her cohort is beginning to turn sixteen. It seems like only yesterday, they were graduating from elementary school and timidly joining the middle school ranks!</p>
<p>Next week is Sās homecoming. He came home on Friday and informed us that he did not make homecoming court this year - but he was elected āMole Kingā by all the science classes for International Mole Day (Oct 23)!! Wow - that makes a mother proud! lol Apparently they are make a Mole Day float for the homecoming parade and he gets to ride on it. Is this nerdy or what?</p>
<p>Megpmomā¦you should be proud!!! You know what they say ābe nice to the science kids, one day you will be working for oneā. Actually I think it is ābe nice to nerds, one day you will be working for oneā but close enough.</p>
<p>Congrats to the Mole King!</p>
<p>So first Homecoming is over. DSās ādateā is in love with him but he apparently does not feel anything towards her and feels kind of awkward now when the peers are expecting them to date. Never imagined a situation like this could be stressful, but it is !</p>
<p>Busy day today as we are heading to visit Stanford tomorrow.</p>
<p>Tomorrow is PSAT day but DS has yet to open the book. He was so busy/stressed last night (all the assignments not finished because of homecoming weekend ;), that I did not even mention it. He was anchoring his first TV broadcast this A.M. and apparently PBS people were going to be there. Plus advertising (flyer)for a new math competition that the math club at the school will be doing this year, plus finishing HUGE assignment for LA, plus studying for Spanish plus studying for physics quiz at the college tonight.
Why is is that they are always so busy before the school break ? (it is fall break here later this week).</p>
<p>Kelowna
Enjoy your trip! And donāt let DSās projects stress you out.</p>
<p>Megpmom
Mole-King is the best thing I ever heard! That would be something fun to put on a college app. Certainly unique.</p>
<p>Our PSATs are tomorrow. My kid hasnāt looked at anything for them. Although he did have me get the ACT book and plans on taking that in December. Iām certain he wonāt actually open it, but it was worth the $15 bucks or so just to dream he will.</p>