<p>2018dad - Welcome! No, you’re not the only dad. Off the top of my head Avondad (who the hs 2011 crowd calls Captain as he steers the SS Indecision…yes, you think THIS is hard?!? Wait until they finally get acceptances and won’t decide on a school…tick-tock…May 1 is approaching…it’s really bad. That boat was full, and the band played on. ). Also, Apollo is another dad. I feel like I’m missing someone. </p>
<p>I get the idea of wanting to let sibs spend time together. S2 & S3 are three years apart in school, two in age. S3 misses his brother terribly and I know they text & fb chat often. S1 is at home but the four year age difference is enough to put them at much different stages in their lives so they don’t connect in the same way (although they don’t clash like they used to which is a welcome blessing!). </p>
<p>S3 is swimming in APUSH. Between that, APComp it’s a huge time suck to manage with his EC. Every school is different, but I can’t imagine pairing it with APLit and APPhysics (both intensive). Lit has a ton of reading on its own. S3 had to cut down his requested APs for next year simply for time management. I’m still not happy with the combination.</p>
<p>seattle_kids’ school got rid of APUSH a few years ago because the History department felt strongly about teaching history through in-depth investigation rather than survey memorization. Reading all your homework updates makes me very glad about that!</p>
<p>blue ~ I can’t even begin to imagine having APUSH and APComp at the same time, let alone adding APLit or APPhysics! DS took APUSH last year as a sophomore and said it wasn’t difficult, it was just a huge time commitment - the reading and writing seemed endless. Sadly, prior to that class, he was a kid who loved history, but I felt like APUSH sort of took all the joy out of it for him…</p>
<p>Standard for juniors in our HS is APUSH, AP Lang/Comp, AP Bio. My S is in the “wrong” math for a junior, which impacts the sciences, so he’s in AP Calc AB, AP Physics C Mech, AP Lang/Comp and took regular honors US History.</p>
<p>@Classof2015 I have probably been accused of being a helicopter parent. So much is at stake for dd. So I feel that no stone can be left unturned. I have definitely pulled back some in the past few months.</p>
<p>I am actually hoping that she falls in the top 2% of her class. That will mean more merit based aid… I have no money saved up in a college fund so alot is riding on her finishing up strong. </p>
<p>Test scores will also mean so much when those adcoms are sizing her up in 10 months. I wish they felt like test scores didn’t matter, it would make our lives so much easier/less stressful.</p>
<p>I have a kid who is probably top 2% in raw intellectual ability (especially mathematical and problem solving talent), but whose grades don’t show it for a number of reasons (including ADHD). His grades are actually quite good for a kid with ADHD, but when we need merit aid (or admission to a lottery school that offers excellent need-based aid) to afford school, it makes it more challenging, especially since he wants to stay in the Northeast. I don’t know if he’ll disclose the ADHD in his applications or not. He probably should as it puts the grades into a more understandable context. But I don’t want it to look like he thinks of it as an excuse for lackluster performance. His standardized test scores so far are high relative to his grades, which makes it looks like he is lazy/underachieving.</p>
<p>Welcome 2018Dad! We like men here, as long as you don’t mind us showing up in our sweats or pjs on occasion. Still laughing about the emergency Hello Kitty pj run. I often drove Spygirl to preschool in my pj’s as Spyguy was a baby and that kid never slept.</p>
<p>It’s odd isn’t it, how different APUSH is taught across the country? It’s a year long course at DD’s school. </p>
<p>I have a different perspective regarding the 2% and posts about high scores. I don’t consider parents’ posts bragging anymore than I would consider a parent’s glowing report about a sport achievement or music prowess to be bragging. We’re all proud of our children for what they’ve achieved.</p>
<p>For some gifted kids, the high SAT score is their homerun, the winning basket or the touchdown. And parenting gifted children is not the picnic it would seem.</p>
<p>APUSH certainly does vary depending on the school and teacher. DD has APUSH, AP Lit and AP Comp. APUSH is easily more work than the other two AP classes combined. They have about a chapter every ten days. They have to turn in hand written flash cards (about 30) and in-depth notes for each chapter, along with answered questions and sometimes a project. DD is a fast reader, but she still grumbles about it a bit. 5boys, I’d ask someone at your son’s school or ask the teacher what the reading load is. It seems like more more than EP Euro was.</p>
<p>I had to do an emergency run to school today, but it was for a good cause. The student council is sponsoring a blood drive and dd wanted to donate. At 16, the kids need a parental release form which was never handed out. Since we only live a few minutes away, I ran up and signed it. I just got a text from her saying she was about to have it drawn and she was feeling a bit faint, but she might save a life, so she’d be brave!</p>
<p>So some school’s APUSH is just a semester? I did not know that. My d’s school has it as a year long. AP Micro and AP Macro are both semester classes in her school.</p>
<p>My daughter is taking 5 APs this year (AP Lit, APUSH, AP Calc AB, AP Art History and AP Chem). She’s having a hard time on AP Lit this semester. For some reason her teacher doesn’t like her writing as much as last sem, where she was getting A’s. This sem, she’s getting Cs and Bs on her writing where it’s 55% of the overall grade. She just probably need to figure out what the teacher is looking for on the essays. But she needs to figure out fast, otherwise it would be really hard to bring up her grade.</p>
<p>@NewHavenCTmom
Between me and the wifey, I’m the helicopter parent. So I know exactly what you are talking about. Sometimes I need to remind myself to step back a little bit.</p>
<p>I think APUSH is a semester where schools are on a true block schedule, taking four courses a semester covering an entire year. It’s a LOT o material to cover this way and the kids have to refresh for the AP in May so its not optimal, but you don’t have a choice how your county decides to do it. We are on a modified block which the kids really like. Seven courses all year. First block one hour each day, blocks 2,4,&6 on even days for 90min, and blocks 3,5,&7 on odd days. The down side is you could have calc on Thursday with hw due Monday. If you don’t start the assignment until Sunday night and realize you have questions your out of luck.</p>
<p>Even though our school is one a true block schedule, AP classes are usually full-year – either a half block all year, whole block all year (counts as 2 credits) or whole block in the fall and half in the spring (counts as 1.5 credits) – in some of the latter cases the half block in the spring is optional. Since our spring semester ends mid-June, trying to fit a whole AP class into spring before the AP exam in early May would be very tight, and if it’s a fall block, then there’s an unfortunate gap between the class and the exam. All non-AP classes are single semester though. It’s nice because it’s a bit more of a relaxed pace, but it makes scheduling really tough if something like AP Bio is taking up 2 of your 7 possible slots (3 full and one half per semester, typically, with 4 full possible if you eat lunch in class). If you have AP bio and AP Chem, each one is 2 blocks… and each is only offered at one time of day, so it nails down your schedule pretty quickly!</p>
<p>Mathmom-- That schedule makes my head swim.</p>
<p>DD’s school hasn’t forecasted yet, still wondering when that’s going to happen. But she’s coming to her senses and is probably going to drop one of her AP science classes to take a class she enjoys. Yay!</p>
<p>S14’s school schedule is a mess. 8 days, 7 blocks that rotate through different times (not in a pattern) for 6 days, 2 of which are long blocks. Everything is named A-H and A-G. Scheduling a dental checkup for a day with a free block requires three windows open on my laptop!</p>
<p>Seattle, that is one confusing schedule! DS has 7 classes. Mondays are “anchor days” meaning all seven classes. Tuesdays and thursdays have periods 1-4; Wednesdays and fridays are 5-7 with an “8th period” for clubs, tutoring, etc. </p>
<p>Since his school draws from several counties the administration was afraid that kids would have difficulty finding transportation home after extracurriculars so they embedded them into the school day. </p>
<p>Eighth period is actually two 45 minute blocks and kids have tons of choices to fill that time period. Anything from math team, community service, cultural clubs, weightlifting, sports practices, tutoring, “film study”, or in the case of second semester seniors, hanging out in the senior lounge playing ping pong! </p>
<p>I think I am understanding now why our school went to trimesters instead of blocks when they were looking for a way to allow students to take more classes. We have three trimesters of 5 seventy minute long classes. Each tri is .5 credits so they have 75 credits per year (15 slots). AP classes are all year long courses so they are 1.5 credits. It didn’t help my daughter much because she wanted to be in band and that was also a year long course, 1.5 credits… every year for four years. </p>
<p>It did allow some kids to “double up” on subjects. My son did this and, in 10th grade, had Bio A 1st tri, Bio B and Chem A 2nd tri and Chem B 3rd tri. So he got Bio and Chemistry done in the same year. Some kids have done math similarly… although did Alg II A 1st tri, Alg II B 2nd tri, Pre-Calc A 3rd tri. Then they did Pre=CalcB the next fall.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone for all the info on APUSH… it is a hard decision. He is in AP Latin, AP Bio, AP Psych and AP Lang this year. He is doing great. The problem is he HATES history and ended up with a C+ in World in 9th grade. He is a slow reader and really hates reading dry boring stuff. He is fine in the AP’s in English. APUSH is a year class and most of the kids take it junior year… my DS opted out and took AP Psych instead… which he is OBSESSED with!! He is a theater kid and will most likely be applying to BFA’s and some BA’s like Northwestern. That was my original concern.He has HUGE theater commitments and he can’t spend his time reading USH for hours each night. We are going to OH in 2 weeks to see Kenyon, Wooster and Oberlin. The consensus is that he will be fine with the honors USH.</p>
<p>Both of my last 2 boys are probably in that 2% of raw intellectual ability. Both of them have high test scores and lower grades…A- B+. I have heard that sometimes the really bright kids don’t put high grades as a priority because they question everything.’ Why do I have to do this over and over when I already got it the first 2 seconds." They both have ADHD on some level, but refused any sort of treatment with drugs. It was always sad to me because I knew( and everyone that came in contact with them) that their thinking was at a different level than most kids. It is just hard sometimes to harness that intellect.</p>
<p>Yes, if he hates history, I wouldn’t encourage APUSH. I tried to talk my D out of AP Calc because she’s totally a fine arts person. She did fine, but I think she would have been less stressed with AP Stats. My S’14 is a total history/politics buff. He had already taken US History, Civil War History and World Wars. He’s finding APUSH to be no big deal. He is LOVING AP Psych and AP Bio too though and now wants to be a political psychologist or a neuropsychologist. PhD here we come? Oh boy.</p>
<p>Welcome. Another dad here. I lurk more than I post, but it’s a great resource here.</p>
<p>Regarding APUSH, at DS14’s school, the social studies department is very strong. I think the teachers do a great job of distilling the material. The textbook is Tindall. It’s two volumes, 37 chapters, and over 1500 pages. My son is a fast reader but I get the impression he’s not reading word for word. He took AP Euro last year with good results and reports APUSH is much easier, but a little more boring. He doesn’t spend that much time on it. </p>
<p>He’s got an all AP schedule with AP Spanish Lang, AP Lang, Calc BC, AP Bio, and APUSH. He seems to spend the most time on AP Span, but it’s his least favorite, probably a connection there. </p>
<p>We got ACT results back and were pleasantly surprised. We’d be done but in our state, we have another ACT as part of the state testing. At least it’s free. (Well paid for in another way). </p>
<p>This is probably the wrong thread, but does anyone know the timing of NMSF announcement. I think DS will fall short of the cutoff in our state and be commended, but I’d hate to be wrong. Is there sufficient time to take an SAT after you find the cut score for NMSF?</p>
<p>Dave–I have not been following this closely as my son is not in the running but I believe the NMSF are notified in September. There is then an application to file along with the confirming SAT score. I do not know the test date deadline so you will have to research that further.</p>
). Also, Apollo is another dad. I feel like I’m missing someone. </p>