<p>I realized that this is probably what our GC thinks of me when my sophomore S said she told him when giving him his PLAN results, “Your mom will be happy to see these!” (He also has a dad.) I think she thinks this in part because I asked in advance if we would receive the junior year PSAT results before Christmas so I could know whether my D would be eligible for National Merit; but as it turned out, I was somewhat justified in my expectation that she would–she ended up with the highest PSAT score in the school by 10 points!</p>
<p>Thoughts for you (and you might already know this, but just in case…): You can find out how he compares with other kids in his school without asking her directly, by looking online for his school’s profile (sent to colleges each year by the guidance counselor with students’ transcripts) or, if necessary, asking her or the office staff for a copy of it. It will probably show the decile ranges of GPA for the current senior class, based on scores through the end of junior year. You can express your wish that he will be intellectually challenged and ask her advice. You can encourage your son in advance to do most of the talking.</p>
<p>And, it is not the worst thing in the world to have high ambitions for your child, as long as they aren’t unreasonable ones.</p>
<p>Of course, I would prefer that my GC didn’t think I was overly pushy. I have tried to have my daughter have most of the contact with her this year, as a senior, and the GC has actually been wonderful regardless of what she thinks of me.</p>
<p>I don’t think you need to feel weird about telling GC your ds’s aspirations (I’m assuming he wants the top schools, not just you). But I wouldn’t ask about him in reference to other kids in his class. That’s private information that she won’t give. </p>
<p>I would just say, “Kson has his sights set on top schools like HYP (or whatever). I know all those schools are a longshot for anyone because of the number of applications they receive, but does Kson’s stats put him in contention when compared to other kids from this school who’ve gotten in at HYP?” Do y’all have Naviance? That would help a lot and might make asking these kinds of questions unnecessary to ask her. Without Naviance, she’s pretty much the only who knows how kids jof your ds’s stats have done.</p>
<p>I think it’s important to raise, humbly, of course, because it lets her know that that’s what he’s aiming for. I let ds1’s GC know early that FA was the biggie for us, so she was really helpful filling out the Questbridge paper work in a timely manner, etc.</p>
<p>Ds finally gets his PSAT score next week. I’m curious – did you tell your kids not to share his/her score? I’d like ds to play it close to the vest, but he’s a blabber, lol.</p>
<p>Well, our GC knows me/my D’s as well. I’ve always prefaced my emails with something like “I’m sorry to be a pest and I know you’re busy with (fill in the blank) but…” </p>
<p>D1 was the TA for one of the gifted consultants who had her office in the guidance area so she got to be a familiar face to the GC as well and would run errands for her if she needed. We’ve never had to deal with guidance for anything negative so I think we have a positive rating in the GC’s book ;)</p>
<p>As for not “blabbing” D2 went into the office with a group of her cronies to get their scores so I’m pretty sure there were blabs; in our case that means she’s lamenting that she didn’t do that well 'cause her good friend scored “way better” than her. Sigh. </p>
<p>Just got the 1st semester report card and it looks good. D1 mentioned that she was jealous of D2s gpa for freshman & 1st half of sophomore year (she was in the process of being diagnosed with LDs at the beginning of freshman year) and it took D2 aback. She didn’t realize her gpa was that much higher than D1s had been.</p>
<p>We just ended a very stressful couple of days. S has been working toward Texas All State choir for the last six months. The final audition (round 4) was today. Well yesterday, I got a call from the school nurse that S was having a severe migraine - tunnel vision, vomiting, etc. I’m sure it was related to all the stress he had been under, but I took him home, gave him medication and put him to bed. S was convinced that he had an aneurysm! But, thankfully, he woke up this morning feeling fine and went to the audition. He made 3rd chair in his vocal part (Bass 2)!! Not bad for a sophomore. And, now we’re all happy and very relieved. This was his biggest goal for this school year and he achieved it. Everything else is gravy.</p>
<p>Arrgh!! I just sat my son down to talk to him about his grades. I had no idea how absolutely clueless about things he was. Even though I’ve been talking to him, it took us sitting down and punching in the numbers for him to really get it. Because he got a 3.1 freshman year, he’ll need a 4.0 this year to pull his gpa up to a 3.5 and will need a 4.0 next year to get close to a 3.7. It’s totally doable IF he stays on top of his work which is questionable. He loses so many points from missed/late assignments. It’s so frustrating to me but doesn’t seem to bother him at all. He’s fine because he knows the material. The fact that his grades don’t really reflect that goes over his head.
I’m getting him more involved with the whole college admissions process by giving him chapters to read from the books I’ve been reading. I’m hoping it will click by seeing it in black and white that colleges really look at grades and test scores, especially since his #1 right now is a very selective school. Most of his top schools are very selective due to his planned major and the fact that we’ll need A LOT of financial aid. It’s hard to find that balance between letting him know how important his part in this is without making him get stressed about the process. I’m hoping that having concrete goals as far as his gpa and SAT scores go will help him stay on track to meet them and be more agreeable to the steps that must be taken to meet those goals. The kicker is that I’m sure that with only slightly more effort on his part, he’ll see some amazing results. I just need for him to buy into that…lol.</p>
<p>reeinaz – I agree it is very difficult to figure out how to approach my son at this stage of the game and get him aware of the big picture (including finances) without causing stress for my son. If you find a formula that works, please share it!</p>
<p>YDS – My kid never shares his scores and grades. That is just his personality. </p>
<p>He has accepted that I forward report cards to grandparents (who help pay tuition), but he gets upset if his Aunts know his grades. He appears very lax in attitude and often scatter brained. If he can pull his grades up a bit, there is a good chance he’ll be named Cum Laude next year. If that happens, it will shock some of his classmates and their parents - especially the young lady who is actively working toward this goal and has let faculty know she wants it. He has been in CTY since 2nd grade. Another parent was directed to me as CTY parent volunteer and was amazed to learn this. My shaggy haired, Sex Pistols lovin anarchist has many hidden layers. </p>
<p>I wish his friends were more open about this as well. His school is small (17-25 per grade). The average SAT varies quite a bit from year to year (2010 grads were on avg 200 pts lower than 2008 grads for SAT; expect 2011 kids to be much higher than 2010 based upon colleges apps were sent to). For the college search, he has stated that he doesn’t want a peer group less than he has now. Great data point if we had any kind of concrete data to compare.</p>
<p>reeinaz: I completely understand your frustration. That’s why I took my DD (class of '10) to a couple of colleges for info sessions/tours in 10th grade. I wanted her to hear someone besides me telling her how important grades were. I think it helped a bit but, in the end, I tried to let go (and I was sometimes successful, sometimes not). Frustrating. Good luck.</p>
<p>I never tell my kids to protect their scores, it is ultimately their choice. S has shared his PSAT score with classmates that asked. What is unnerving to me is the kids who ask for your score but never tell you theirs. S’s close friend did not reveal his score. S’s comment was that he probably did not score well because in the conversation he started downplaying the importance of standardized testing. My son is not as curious as I am ;)</p>
<p>Kelowna, I never shared ds1’s exact scores on here. I gave plenty of hints though: Commended range, not NMSF, for PSAT (that narrows it to a 15-point window for us) or for SAT, I’d say something like 2200+, which I think provides enough context (really strong, not perfect). Now, if he’d ever had perfect PSATs or SATs, I’d probably tell!</p>
<p>I am a parent of a HS freshman D2, class14 (and a college junior D1). Not truly belong to parents of class13 and probably should not post here.</p>
<p>D2 took the PSAT (required by her school for all IB students) and got her results couple of days ago. She did tell people her scores when was asked (the few who asked her directly are her friendly competitors and they do help each others). A few of her other friends showed her their scores (probably expected her to share hers), but she did not because they did not ask. Her reason was since she did better, she did not want her friends feel bad even their scores were very good for freshmen.</p>
<p>My S is one of the those kids who is really annoyed by kids who want to “share” scores because those kids usually just want to confirm that they did better than you and brag. He also doesn’t know his GPA or class rank. I’m a little curious, but I guess I’ll wait until college application time. His grades are fine, which is all that really matters at this point.</p>
<p>Our semester report cards show cumulative GPA as well as current semester GPA. We have no idea on the class rank except…every year the school has a top student lunch and invites the top 20 kids from each class. I remember having to ask the GC where D1 fell towards the end of junior year as we were trying to figure out some pieces of the admissions puzzle.</p>
<p>D’13 is quite happy right now as they have called school for tomorrow. Now waiting for the first flake…</p>
<p>Students at my D’s school don’t find out their class rank until after first semester junior year. Rumors fly around about who is number one, but they are often based on inaccurate information about a students record and course load. My D is curious about where she places with the rest of her class because it plays a part in our very competitive state school admissions. However, we have a good idea where she stands and don’t place too much importance on this one aspect of her resume. I think it’s most important for her to take the classes she is most interested in and that prepare her the most for college. The rest will take care of itself.</p>
<p>DS and his friends discussed their PSAT scores - i think they were all in the same range. He didn’t make a big deal out of his friends’ scores except that he wasn’t happy with his (even though they were pretty good for a 10th grader).</p>
<p>We don’t find out official GPA till sometime towards the end of junior year (although obviously you can kind of figure it out). I think they tell us class rank around then (IF PUSHED) but I don’t think official class rank is out that early. I’m more concerned about it for my kids’ college apps rather than if they are higher than X person.</p>
<p>heh…My son is definitely one of those “it’s tacky to talk about grades” people. He doesn’t really care. And when I ask where he fits in amongst his classmates, he always says that they don’t talk about grades. His classes involve a great deal of participation and group projects and many individual assignments are posted online to the class. So they all know how they compare in a way but it’s nothing concrete. His gpa is listed on his report card but not class rank. I’m not even sure if the class does rank as they have a really bizarre grading system which rounds everything up or down to 95, 85, 75 etc on the report cards.
My son was ok with his PSAT scores. They were an improvement from last year and above the 80th percentile. He is really ok with just being above average. I love that he doesn’t stress out about grades. But I think I’m stressing out for the both of us…lol.</p>
<p>My D’s high school does not rank, but for the first time this year, posted the high school profile on the school web site. It shows the top GPA, the 10th percentile, the 25th percentile, the 50th, the 75th and the lowest GPA. The district did away with ranking in 2006, so it took a while to publish this.</p>
<p>I get the sense that the questions from the parents to the GC are increasing, as are the numbers of kids taking honors and AP classes. Our high school is screening Race To Nowhere this month. </p>
<p>No PSAT here until October of junior year. I wonder if our school will start an earlier PSAT to respond to parents’ demand. On CC, a sophomore PSAT seems to be the norm.</p>
<p>Like I have said above, our report card indicates current class rank, but the final ranking is done at the end of the first semester of the senior year, at which point they weight is added. Our system does not add w lot for Honors and AP, and college classes are taken at face value. I think they add 0.02 for Honors and 0.05 for AP, but I also think that it is added per semester. Top kids strive for all A’s, as it is very difficult to overcome even an A- . But it is next to impossible, I think, to have all A’s at this school. We know very well a salutatorian of this year’s graduating class and let’s just say that he did have his share of less than perfect grades And this is a class that has produced more than 20 NMSF.</p>
<p>Our school doesn’t report rank until first semester senior year and reports both weighted and unweighted rank on transcripts. An “A” in AP/GT class would be a 5 on 4 point scale and an “A” in honors would be 4.5. I wonder if colleges would use the higher rank or would have a preference for weighted or unweighted rank.
I have no idea where my son will rank on either scale and none of his friends have talked about there PSAT scores. The school did give into parent pressure this year and let Freshman start taking the PSATs.</p>
And this is a class that has produced more than 20 NMSF.</p>