<p>And it isn’t just the fees to TAKE the exams. You also have the fees to send them. And the CSS Profile fee too. It’s ridiculous.</p>
<p>CT1417 - My guess is that it is a curved thing, sort of like the AP tests. ON most AP tests, kids can get a raw 67%ish and end up with a 5. It doesn’t make sense to me, because that doesn’t seem like mastery… and now schools like Dartmouth are catching on. I don’t think the practice test is out of line. They are harder tests than the regular SAT and curved with their scoring.</p>
<p>Speaking of curves, anyone check their 14er’s Score reports today for the March SAT? I had read on CC (from all the kids who took the test on March 9th) that they suspected the curve on the math to be rough, since the test was “easier” than usual. My son got one wrong, and that was a 760. For the Dec. 1 test, 2 wrong was a 760. He knew it was wrong from kids talking in the bathroom during a break, and he knew he could’ve gone back and changed it, but that is dishonest, so he didn’t do it. I’m proud of him for that. 
He tends to be a careless error sort of kid, so he was happy he didn’t make other careless errors (the one he did make had to do with zero being an integer or not, and he’d mis-remembered something from a Blue Book practice test) He was also very proud he did not make errors on the writing portion! He met his goal for that, but he is famous for 8’s on the essay, so that prevented the perfect score there (a 9 would have done it, or at least it did for his brother) … He will take the test one more time, mostly to see if he can do it, but also, to see if he can get the score in a range that will help a tad more with admissions to some schools, or bring him into another merit bracket at others. It still feels like such a crapshoot… pardon my french… </p>
<p>Also, I agree that APs and subject tests are redundant… And for us, AP’s are so EARLY!! We still have 7 more weeks of school after the tests, but the whole year is taught to the tests, so then what do they do in class for the rest of the year? Watch movies? :D</p>
<p>That’s exactly what they do in our schools after the AP tests. In AP Psych they watch Sybil, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, and other “psych” movies. In APUSH, I think they watched historical fiction type movies. I don’t remember what my D’s class did in AP Calc. In AP English, they watched Pride and Prejudice, To Kill a Mockingbird, etc. </p>
<p>To top it all off, the seniors aren’t there the last few weeks either so the juniors really don’t do anything at all then. I don’t understand why the AP exams are so darn early. Also, when my daughter had APUSH, because it was so early, they hadn’t gotten to more “recent” history and there was an essay question about Nixon. Oops. Nobody in her class got a 5.</p>
<p>Once again, you folks are making me feel good that we live in a lower school district. Oldest didn’t take any APs or SAT II tests and just took the SAT and ACT once each.</p>
<p>Middle self-studied for two APs, but no SAT II tests, never took the SAT, and took the ACT three times (due to chasing perfection more than needing a higher score). Youngest won’t have any APs or SAT II tests. He took the ACT once and the SAT once (so far). We’re still debating the June SAT.</p>
<p>Reading about all the stress and testing is making even more glad we’re not aiming for the tippy top places. It’s just not us. Middle chose a Top 30 and is quite happy there. My other two don’t even want that high - just schools that are “right” for them.</p>
<p>It is interesting to see the different ways life (and college apps) can be.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine what the costs would be for all the testing and reporting if Collegeboard was considered “for profit”!! :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Hello, new '14 parent. My D1 is Stanford '15 hence Stanford Mom. However, my D2 is Class of 2014.</p>
<p>Welcome to the club, StanfordMom!!</p>
<p>That’s the other thing. Then they sit for a month or more after AP exams. Silly. Also, a racket. :D</p>
<p>the AP’s aren’t that early for those of us who have graduations the middle of May. Our kids are out May 15 so it works fine. i don’t get the redundancy of AP and SAT 2’s although I only had 1 of 4 take them. A lot of schools have you do placement tests for their math or foreign language any way…
My friend lives in Fl and when you sign up for the AP class, the district pays for the test. The teachers get a bonus based on how well their kids do. think of those Newsweek rankings where they rank the best high schools by the percentage of kids that take AP tests. They never rank them on how well they do on the tests so you could have a whole student body who never scores over a 3 but Newsweek would rank them higher.</p>
<p>We survived our nine college spring break tour in New England and the mid-Atlantic states, with DD still playing her cards close to the chest about her impressions. Crowds were incredible, with several places reporting all-time daily records for visitor numbers. Huge tour groups, packed info sessions. But at least we made some progress in understanding rural/suburban/urban and research university/SLAC tradeoffs. The pleasant surprise of the week was a perfect set of SAT scores, on the first try. Unexpected tour highlights included Mt Holyoke (beautiful campus) and Yale (sparkling guide); unexpected low points included Princeton – the only definite “thumbs down” – where a low-ranking admissions staffer gave a remarkably generic presentation to a capacity crowd, and Wellesley, which was beautiful but seemingly deserted on the first day back after their spring break. We didn’t even try to visit any campuses that were themselves on spring break last week, so there are gaps to fill in later, and both the midwest and the northwest remain to be explored, and maybe a place or two in California. Not sure when we are going to get to all that…</p>
<p>My3gr8boys: Props to your DS for integrity - that’s worth more than any score.</p>
<p>Our school district doesn’t get out until mid-June so the AP tests come early for us too. Not only that, but since we don’t start until after Labor Day, the kids actually have less time to learn the material. Thankfully it doesn’t seem to have a negative impact at DS’s school since the pass rate is very high (last school year there was only one student who got a score below a 3 on a test, out of the more than 900 kids who took AP exams).</p>
<p>From what my kid tells me though, they are still working after the AP tests are given. He said he has a project in Calc and a paper in APUSH, both due in June. Not sure about Chem. No finals in Calc or APUSH at least.</p>
<p>Wow! Congrats to your D, 2014ProfDad! And what a marathon tour! Sounds like a success.</p>
<p>DD is a bit peeved that AP Chem is not doing a lot of AP test studying IN class. There aren’t mostly seniors in the class and many are not taking the AP exam since they already have their college acceptances in hand. AP test studying is reserved after school which competes with DD’s EC. Frustrating. </p>
<p>BTW, have you heard the news…</p>
<p>New Bravo reality series:</p>
<p>NEW UNSCRIPTED PROJECTS IN DEVELOPMENT:
“Ivy League Confidential” (working title)
Produced by Andrew Glassman Productions with Andrew Glassman and Jeff Gaspin as Executive Producers.
When money is no object and you want to make sure your child gets accepted into one of the top universities in the world, what else do you do but hire the country’s best college admissions consultants. “Ivy League Confidential” follows a group of four elite college admissions consultants in New York and Los Angeles as they deal with over-the-top, pampered clients (both the parents and the children) that, unfortunately for our counselors, expect nothing but Ivy League results.</p>
<p>Our school, too, go2. Studying for the AP chem exam happens before school (7:10 am, to be exact).</p>
<p>I don’t think our school supports any formal studying for the AP exams. Kids learn the content in class and study for the exams on their own. The English teacher usually offers (and grades!) a practice AP exam a few weeks before the real thing.</p>
<p>Can a college rescind your acceptance if you don’t take the AP exam? Just curious.</p>
<p>DS’s (and DD2016’s) school offers AP/IB review sessions on Saturday mornings and various individual teachers offer at other times after school. DS is doing 2 AP exams (English Lit and USH) and 2 IB exams (Anthro SL and Math SL) this year, on various dates throughout May. School ends June 7 or thereabouts – I have no idea what the teachers have planned post-exam. I know when DS was in 9th grade his World History AP teacher showed movies with historical and/or geopolitical themes (Blood Diamond and the like).</p>
<p>I am also curious about this too. AP exams are in beginning to mid May and school does not get out until beginning of June to mid June. So that is a whole 2-4 weeks before school is out. Do these kids have finals in these classes or would the AP exam be the culmination of the class? It’s DS first time taking AP classes this year. They also don’t have any sort of AP review sessions offered to them. It’s all on their own.</p>
<p>Our schools go through mid-June. AP teachers usually do fun projects with the kids after the AP exam (shooting off model rockets in AP Physics, for example). Our school requires a final in every class that is worth at least 10% of the grade, but it can also be a project, so usually the AP classes have a project that counts as the final. </p>
<p>I don’t think a college would rescind an acceptance for not taking the AP exam, unless they had explicitly stated that as a condition.</p>