<p>PCP, not sure. Our schools always has tested on Wednesdays, but I know there are schools that tests on Saturdays because a couple of years ago band kids went then because they had a competition until late Tuesday and didn’t want to test on Wednesday. Maybe the Saturday test centers just add that date as a make-up site?</p>
<p>Some schools in our district test on Wednesdays and some on Saturdays. Ours used to test on Saturdays which was a painfor club sports, but it seems like after we got a new principal we changed to Wednesdays. My kids have said that other kids from neighboring schools take it at our school because they have a conflict on Saturday.</p>
<p>We always have the PSAT on a Wednesday; the PLAN that same day too, but kids who take the PSAT on Wednesday can “make up” the PLAN on Thursday. D did that today. We chatted about the 2 tests this afternoon. Surprisingly she said she liked the PSAT better than the PLAN because she felt the SAT math was “easier” and it didn’t have the Science section. She had taken the ACT in 7th grade for Duke TIP and the SAT in 8th grade for John Hopkins. She had done “better” on the ACT vs. the SAT according to concordance tables even though she had taken the ACT a year earlier. </p>
<p>And I was wrong about D’10’s score jump. She had gotten a 196 in 10th grade and then the lovely 221 in 11th grade. </p>
<p>Lottagirlz: D’10 took regular level geometry in 9th grade, regular level algebra II in 10th grade and then regular level pre-calc/trig in 11th grade. </p>
<p>I just pulled out all the testing to look & see. Don’t know if it will be helpful for y’all who are on your 1st go round, but D’10 got a 20 ACT composite as a 7th grader, a 29 on the PLAN in 10th grade (which estimated her ACT score range to be 30-33) and a 32 composite as a Junior. She got a 1620 on her SATs in 8th grade, a 196 on the 10th grade PSAT, a 221 on the 11th grade PSAT and a 2200 on her SATs as a junior. She was a “one and done” girl on both of the last tests.</p>
<p>I understand now why so many kids are admitted to Stanford from Palo Alto High School.
It is truly across the street from the University !</p>
<p>Our school did PSAT on Saturday last year and Wednesday this year. For us it really does not make a difference, other than indeed Saturday would interfere with crew practice.
This year it is a fall break so I guess this is the main reason they did it on a Wednesday.</p>
<p>RobD - I wanted to express me sincere appreciation for you posting your D scores. It really puts things into perspective. Thank you so much !
My S has no idea how he did on Wednesday’s PSAT. He is also the kid that has been taking ACT/SAT for talent searches since 6th grade as well as PSAT as a freshman.</p>
<p>Wow! I figured having S1 graduate HS in '10 and S2 graduate in '11 that I would be able to take a little bit of a breather between S2 and S3, and then those darn PSAT’s sneak up and bite me in the rear! Guess I better get acquainted with all you guys as I get ready for round three!</p>
<p>Kelowna: you’re welcome! It was helpful for me to look back; I don’t know if I’ve ever looked back on them cumulatively like that before. I pulled D’13’s stuff out too and she has consistently had scores significantly higher than D’10’s. Guess we’ll see what the PSAT & PLAN scores look like to see if that trend continues.</p>
<p>Welcome 3bysmom! I was hoping for a quiet year too but doesn’t look like D’13’s gonna let me…welcome to the '13 club & best of luck with your S’11. How’s his year going?</p>
<p>Last day of school tomorrow before a mini 2 day fall break; report cards mailed tomorrow too.</p>
<p>Geogirl…I absolutely didn’t mean to imply that your D’s condition wasn’t real. I know quite a few kids with real challenges for test taking and certain types of coursework. I really feel that kids with these types of challenges should get an accomodation. I don’t think there is anything unfair about some kids getting extra time. At the same time, prep classes or one on one tutoring may also help boost confidence going into these tests. </p>
<p>My D thought the PSAT was hard and long and she observed that “if I thought it was hard, it must have been awful for all the kids in my spanish class who don’t speak English well yet”…we are hispanic and bilingual family so she takes spanish for native speakers at school but she can see that these tests are really hard for kids coming from immigrant homes. She felt bad for some classmates who looked really shell shocked coming out of the PSAT. Some of the questions, even in math, are rather confusing and understanding what they are asking is half the battle. I reminded her that when the scores come out, a lot of kids are going to feel that they are scoring so low on this that they have no chance at college. I hope the counselors really emphasize how this should be seen as a “hello” to these types of tests and start encouraging kids to study early and take advantage of some of the subsidized programs our county has for low income kids for SAT prep. If your county/school/city has these, get the word out to other parents when you attend school and sports events. We are all so fortunate to have kids who want to do well and we are able and willing to give them lots of support to do their best. These tests, unfortunately, are tremendous barriers to success for all types of bright children – I know, the tests aren’t everything – but they often seem like insurmountable hurdles to kids and families and can discourage them from getting the best education they can. You may have some of these kids and families in your school or neighborhood. Please offer used study guides, prep books (AP, SAT, etc), tips, rides to tests or to attend the prep classes to kids who dont have all these resources. This is the kind of help that the counselors at our public school say seems small but helps the less fortunate kids do better on the standardized tests.</p>
<p>FineartsMM- I am sorry if my response was more abrupt than it should have been. I was not offended by your or YDS’s comments. I’ve gone down the road before IRL having to “defend” my DD, and the bottom line is I’m done with it. My DD works very hard to achieve what she has and I am very proud of her. She is very smart. Probably my “smartest” child. She just processes things slower. Oh well. </p>
<p>What a great idea about gifting gently used study guides to children who made need them. Great idea. I think I will bring this up with my kids and see if they can come up with a way to do this school wide to donate to a HS near us. Great idea!</p>
<p>RobD - Just returned from parents weekend for S2 @ Tulane and it was great! He really seems to be adjusting and actually getting up for class (which was our biggest worry!) mid-term grades should be coming out soon, so we’ll see… Off to Philly tomorrow to visit S1 for his parents weekend (although he says that it is only for freshmen)! It continues to amaze me how very different each of our 3 sons are and the different profiles that they will present to colleges. I feel pretty strongly that we left “nothing on the table” with the first two - they are both attending their first choice schools which also happened to be reaches for them. I just hope our luck holds out and S3 has a similarly positive experience.</p>
<p>3bys: I may have to chat with you about Tulane in the future. It’s on the fledgling beginning of a list for D’13 and I’m going to encourage her to visit because I’ve never been to NOLA ;)</p>
<p>I realized driving into work that I need to put an asterisk next to D’10’s scores. She was diagnosed with 1 learning disability in 8th grade, then another in 9th grade. So her talent search ACT & SAT scores were from a time when the LDs weren’t being addressed, while the PSAT, PLAN and “real” ACT & SAT scores are from when she’d been working on overcoming the LD’s. Just wanted to put things in context :)</p>
<p>Finally reached the end of a busy weekend. S’13’s homecoming was Friday and Saturday, which seems to involve me driving him and his friends all over town. Also, he had All Region choir auditions on Saturday morning (S made 4th chair!). All this on top of my working all weekend - I am officially exhausted. Now S needs to get back in the groove of homework after, essentially, a whole week off (Fall break + PSAT+Homecoming).</p>
<p>On the 3rd week of October, my D said to me I have: </p>
<p>5 tests and quizzes
4 field hockey games
3 dress rehearsals
2 orchestra concerts</p>
<p>AND a v i o l i n recital:)</p>
<p>^^^^^^ :)</p>
<p>Wow, blueshoe, 4 games in one week? This is the last week of our season, and I feel a little guilty that I am happy the team will not be continuing on in the playoffs. If D makes it into the spring musical (a very big IF) we will have similar conflicts with lacrosse season and other spring activities. She is starting to see that she just can’t do it all and keep up her grades.</p>
<p>Late October seems to compete with May as being the busiest time of the year for my kiddo (involved in voice, dance and theatre). S has rehearsals, performances, auditions, competitions, etc. almost every day of the week until Nov 6. Makes me long for those lazy days of summer again (but not the 102 degree weather!) I just hope he can squeeze some homework time in. Luckily, his voice and theatre instructors work with each other to prevent too many conflicts. Plus his dance company realized that High schoolers have so many conflicts that this year they scheduled rehearsals from 8:30 to 10:00pm, which helps, just makes for a late night doing homework!</p>
<p>Mamabear, two of the four fh games were postmonements that were rescheduled because of inclement weather the last week and a half. This is also the last week of our regular season as next week district tournament play begins. So there was no choice but to play them in the same week as our fall orchestra/chorus performance of the Rutter Requiem and All County Orchestra. My D’s team is undefeated and has already clenched the regular season district title, so it is likely they will do well in district tournament play and move on to regional tournament action. If they advance to the state tournament from the region, the semifinal and final games take place the same weekend as Senior Regional Orchestra that my D auditioned into in September. I told her this last night and she decided to cross that bridge if she gets to it. But I know what you mean about feeling guilty for hoping that fate will get in the way of her having to make such a gutwrenching choice.</p>
<p>I hate when 2 really important events fall on the same day. I remember flying D’10 across the state so she could compete in 2 events in the same day (luckily was able to pull a morning time in Dallas and an afternoon time in Houston!). But if they’re really conflicting, the choices are terribly hard, especially for a 15 year old.</p>
<p>We are back from the four day visit to SF bay area and Stanford.
DS did not fall in love with Stanford at all 
He says the college is too big, it is too hot and too much sun there. He was hoping for fog and some rain…
I am a little bit lost at this point as too which college should we visit next to give him a contrast with what he has seen at Stanford.
Before Stanford he has seen Caltech and Harvey Mudd. Out of the three so far Caltech is his absolute # 1. He really disliked Harvey Mudd due to estetics
How much of a different feel are the top colleges on the east coast (HYP, MIT) from Stanford? Any great schools in Seattle or Maine ? (you know, to satisfy his craving for fog and rain )</p>
<p>Hi Kelowna! Glad your trip went well, even if was just to cross something off the list. I’ve never been to Stanford, but I can assure you that a winter trip to HYP & MIT will NOT be hot or particularly sunny, due to the winter sun angle. </p>
<p>1st mp over here; D pulled all A’s despite her belief at the beginning of the year that AP Euro would be the thing that pushed her over the edge. She’s got her confidence back after 9 weeks of her hardest academic week. Two day mini fall break today & tomorrow; she wanted no part in any type of going away, not even to visit a local college or two. She really felt she needed to recharge.</p>
<p>I know we talked about testing last week. I remember from my older D that D2 should get her PSAT scores directly from the guidance office around Christmas unless they decide to distribute via English classes in January. Does anyone know how PLAN scores are distributed? You think you’re going to remember these things…</p>
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<p>LOL. Maybe he should look at Carnegie Mellon (Pittsburgh) and Cornell (Ithaca, NY). According to the National Climatic Data Center, these are two of the places with the least sunshine in the country, along with Juneau and Anchorage, Alaska; Seattle; and Portland, OR. Pittsburgh gets 45% of “annual possible sunshine,” while Ithaca (taking nearby Syracuse as a proxy) gets 46%. Some other low-sunshine colleges and universities: U Washington (47%), Reed or Lewis & Clark (48%), Case Western (49%), SUNY Binghamton (49%), Ohio State (50%), U Rochester (51%), Michigan (53%), Wisconsin (54%), U Chicago and Northwestern (54%), Georgetown (56%), and Penn (56%). Perhaps surprisingly, Maine gets quite a bit more sun than western Pennsylvania or upstate New York: Portland, ME gets 57% of annual possible sunshine, same as New Orleans, Baltimore, and St. Louis, and just a tick behind New York City, Boston, Providence, Raleigh-Durham, and Minneapolis-St. Paul (all at 58%).</p>
<p>On the sunny side: Arizona State (85%), Arizona (85%), UCLA & USC (73%), U Miami (70%), U Colorado (69%), UC San Diego (68%), Stanford & UC Berkeley (66%).</p>
<p>Seriously, pretty much anyplace in the Northeast, Midwest, or Southeast (except South Florida) will be cloudier than Stanford. Many people find this a point in Stanford’s favor. To each his own.</p>