<p>My son has had a crazy couple weeks himself. He had AP Psych on the 6th. Then he left for Business Professionals of America National Leadership Conference on the 9th. He got home late on the 12th. Had AP Bio on the 13th and APUSH today. Because of the AP tests and BPA, he has only been to Pre Calc 3 of the last 8 school days. Now he will be playing catch up on those. </p>
<p>He is taking SAT Subject tests and the ACT (3rd time is a charm, right? He wants to raise it by one point) in June. Hopefully heāll be done then until next yearās AP tests. Things will mellow out for him considerably because the seniors are done on the 21st and he has seniors in most of his classes. They donāt do much after that.</p>
<p>Glido - your comment made me think ā¦ DS will be a SENIOR tomorrow at 3:10!!! OMG!!!</p>
<p>He was iffy on his APUSH test - confident he at least made above a 1! haha Hoping for at least a 3! But then he felt really good about the AP Bio. Thatās my STEM kid! And I think heās through with testing. Happy with ACT score, not taking SAT and took SAT II last time.</p>
<p>Heās looking forward to sleeping in Friday. Then his band is playing Friday night & Saturday at two different events in town. I just love listening to them. They play the good music (in my opinion!) - Van Halen, Boston, Kansas, Journey. </p>
<p>I better get busy and figure out where weāre going to tour this summer and get it scheduled. I canāt believe summer break is here. (You guys can rub it in when youāre still out in August and weāre back in school.)</p>
<p>Son '14 felt good about the APUSH exam, despite not studying at all for it. Does not attribute his confident level to the teacher (was not crazy about her or her teaching methods), but has always liked history, so the material came fairly easy. Now that heās done with AP exams, he can focus on his regional track and field meet and other projects for other classes. </p>
<p>One of his friends stopped me this morning and said sheās āso doneā with the year. Son '14 probably feels the same way.</p>
<p>My dā14 has checked out as well. Fortunately, thereās just one week left. Last day is the 23rd. I know from the teachers in my morning workouts that grades are also due the 23rd, so all work must be done by the 22nd.</p>
<p>D did finally get back the paper she turned in back in Feb. Now, letās see if the English teacher can punch it into high gear and finish the one turned in late April. And so help me, if d gets that teacher for Comp next year, for the first time EVER I will be contacting the school and asking for a kid of mine to me moved to another class.</p>
<p>beadymom - canāt believe youāll have a senior so soon! For DD, tomorrow is the last day for seniors, then they have exams next week. So next Thursday they will all be done and off to prom. And when school resumes after Memorial Day (they get the day off after prom for a 4 day weekend), all the Juniors will be at the top of the order in school! But classes donāt end until June 13th or 14 and then they have exams.</p>
<p>DD is so ready for this all to be done - AP Spanish will only have 3 or 4 of 11 left and APUSH will have about half the class but they have a book to read and a project to do on it. Sheās clueless on what will be happening in Spanish (sheāll be using the time to do other homework!) And then her elective science class will only have 3 of them because the rest are all seniors. The big question is if they will be required to do the study guides for final exams if they will be exempt from the finals as she will be for hopefully all (and they donāt give finals for the AP classes).</p>
<p>Sheās meeting with guidance next Monday to figure out her final schedule for next year (basically does she stay in AP Music Theory or drop it for a study) and weāll meet with guidance together on Tuesday to go over everything weāre thinking and doing on the college search front and figure out if there are any other schools we should add to our list.</p>
<p>Of all the tests taken so far, AP French and SAT II French with listening gave D so much anxiety. Her French teacher told the kids that that these tests are only equivalent to the 3rd grade materials in France, not that difficult, no need to worry ):! I am sure T had good intentions but now D is waiting to see if she is as good as a 3rd grader.</p>
<p>When did we change to the HS Class of 2014/College Class of 2018?? Iām not ready for that despite all the college searching! Yikes - that makes it all so much more real!</p>
<p>You crack me up Co2015! Always the sunny side of the street. Iām putting in a request for complementary adult beverages after hours (and during times of extreme crisis) for our new HOSPITALITY SUITE</p>
<p>Really, thatās what this is after all. A great place we all can come to see whoās around, have a beverage (coffee/tea/other), put up your feet, and vent, listen, share your day. I like it! We have some really creative people here who Iām sure will have this place decorated and fixed up in no time!!</p>
<p>Well now that APs are done, we can breathe a little easier for a few days until finals in about a week.</p>
<p>AP CLASSES.
The latest news at my sonās school is - they have decided to phase out AP classes in a few years. They are planning to focus on Advanced Topics (or similar), not sticking to the AP curriculum and teaching towards the test. The kids who end up taking these classes will still be prepped to take the AP tests but the course will not have that designation in the title. I think it will allow teachers and students to be creative and explore topics without having to stick to just teaching towards the test and could make the course quite challenging. </p>
<p>At first I was concerned because kids will end up with no AP classes in their transcripts. How would one compare with someone who has 7-14 APs from another school? I asked my S what he thought and, surprisingly, he thought that getting rid of APs was a good idea. He would no longer be at the school though when this becomes effective. </p>
<p>Some other private prep schools have already been doing this and after exploring this option with college AOs (with lots of positive feedback) my sonās school has also decided to pursue this route. The other schools are well-known and top in the nation so perhaps easier for them to lead the way. Sonās school not so much. It would be interesting to see how this pans out for this school and the kids down the road. </p>
<p>What are your thoughts? Any changes happening at your school?</p>
<p>ognopgod (that is tricky to type)ā¦I think your sonās school is ahead of the curve but in a good way. I believe it is Dartmouth that announced they will no longer accept AP credits beginning with the class that enters Fall 2014 (our children). My sonās school is moving in the opposite direction and added an AP this year. </p>
<p>School profile will illustrate how a student will have taken the most rigorous courses w/o taking a single AP. My personal feeling is that APs have moved far beyond the original intent.</p>
<p>CT1417, yes should have picked a better one! Itās the name of my dog, spelled backwards, LOL. Ran out of ideas! BTW, went with hotwire for a bid on New York and found out it was one of the Affinia hotels. Price was good and seems roomy for 2 teens (Queen beds instead of double) which is a plus. </p>
<p>I suppose school profile will tell all and if kids are still taking the AP tests and scoring same as before perhaps it is for the better. If Dartmouth will no longer be accepting AP credits I wonder if they will still do placement tests to place kids in appropriate classes.</p>
<p>ognopgod ā never imagined I would end up posting as frequently as I have on this site or I would have given more thought to my name also. Someone here uses āI Just Driveā and I love that as it does sum up some of my days, although I might amend it to I Just Drive and Write Checks/Dispense Cash.</p>
<p>I keep telling myself that the colleges have to look at the school profile b/c there is so much variation in grades and grade inflation across schools. The valedictorian in our HS usually ends up with a 4.2-4.3 weighted but I regularly read of students with GPAs approaching 5.0. More troubling, some of the students with GPAs above 4.0 will post SATs below 2000, so lots of variation in rigor across schools. </p>
<p>Congrats on scoring a deal on the hotel. Remind me when you are going. I think it is soon. Today was absolutely gorgeous here (we have NYC weather with a little variation). I believe you were looking at NYU. If you have time, sneak over to the High Line. Completely overrun with people, but interesting to see.</p>
<p>OKāmust return to frantically trying to complete a REALLY long iMovie slideshow for a friendās D who is graduating. Party is Saturday and I am still editing photos. If anyone has any fun song suggestions, please send them my way!</p>
But then he felt really good about the AP Bio. Thatās my STEM kid! And I think heās through with testing. Happy with ACT score, not taking SAT and took SAT II last time.</p>
</p>