<p>Thanks for the rescue, AvonHSDad!!</p>
<p>college4many - we never received the scores for the April ACT by mail, but did receive June’s on the same day that the scores were released online. My guess, in our case, was that my son must have marked that he wanted online scores only for the April scores. </p>
<p>School starts three weeks from today for us. DS went to cross country practice today, but still has yet to crack a book for APUSH.</p>
<p>For kids who have summer AP homework, is it just due when school re-starts, or do they have deadlines throughout the summer?</p>
<p>My DS will be taking AP English Language and a co-taught Physics/Calculus course that covers Physics C Mechanics and Calculus AB. Both classes have numerous mid-summer deadlines that I have found really annoying, as they make it very difficult for the student to responsibly schedule their summer homework among other commitments. My kid went to camp and had to come home and do a huge English project in one week. There wasn’t really any way he could do work on it during camp, and he spent the time before camp pre-submitting the 2 calculus assignments that were going to be due during camp.</p>
<p>My feeling is that the teachers shouldn’t be micro-managing the kids’ summers. If they are taking supposedly college-level classes, they should be practicing their own time management and not have arbitrary deadlines inserted into their summer.</p>
<p>I guess to me it’s like a work/life balance. I understand the need for summer homework with the AP classes, but I think school should also respect that students use their summer for other possibly-immersive activities, and let them work out a schedule that best fits their individual need.</p>
<p>/rant off ;-)</p>
<p>I’m a student and I have periodic deadlines throughout the summer for one of my classes (two others I just have to turn it the first day of school, my last two don’t have any work at all).</p>
<p>I don’t care for it either. I was with my dad on the other side of the country for about three weeks over the summer and I had to do my homework and mail it in to my school instead of getting to relax and spend time with him (it was at the beginning of the year so I didn’t have time really to do it in advance). I guess it’s supposed to be so that you don’t procrastinate and put it all off until the last minute, but it’s supposed to be college level work so I would think it would be the student’s responsibility to manage their own time. =/</p>
<p>Personally I think ALL summer work should be kept to a minimum (for example, for US History I have to read three chapters which is almost 100 pages, I have to do nearly 300 short answer questions, I have to complete 2 full-length chapter tests, and I have to write an essay). It’s not particularly hard but just very time consuming, and there’re many other things I could be doing during the summer than doing this when we could be easily doing this during the year.</p>
<p>At least here, it seems that the rationale for the summer AP homework is to make sure that there’s plenty of time to get the students ready for the AP exams in early May. At least here, that’s about 6 weeks before the end of the school year, so the classes don’t have the full year to cover the material, thus the homework – so that you can get a running start when classes start in September. Again, at least here, the work doesn’t seem to be busy work, but is either review of prerequisite material or getting a start on the actual work for the year.</p>
<p>D14 has minimal AP summer work, and it is mostly reading. I think it’s much easier for the students to read a long book over the summer than during the school year. Some of the summer assignments have been eliminated since D10 was in those classes. I guess the teachers realized those assignments weren’t so valuable after all (D10 would agree!)</p>
<p>Public schools in Michigan do not start until after Labor Day, so we won’t begin the countdown just yet.</p>
<p>Students starting AP classes in September are at somewhat of a time disadvantage in “AP World” over kids who get back to school in August. They have about three weeks less of classroom time to get themselves ready for the test and then at the end of the year, they have about 3-4 weeks with nothing to do. My child has summer work for AP Chem and AP Lang&Comp. The teachers indicate they just want the kids to be able to hit the ground running on the first day of school. For AP Chem, this involves reading and taking notes on the first few chapters of the book and doing some problem sets…stuff that is mostly a review of what they were doing late in the year in pre-AP chem. It is due at the end of the first week of school…so four days into the year. The AP Lang & Comp teacher is asking students to know the meanings of a list of literary terms and start some work in one of the three books. Again, it is due at the end of the first week of school. Kids have the choice of putting it off until school starts but that will make for a stressful first few days of school.</p>
<p>We begin after Labor Day as well, and yes, that does put our students to a disadvantage wrt the AP schedule. </p>
<p>I suspect that the mid-summer deadlines are as much for the teachers’ benefit as the students (they want to schedule their grading around <em>their</em> other priorities) but I still don’t like it ;-P</p>
<p>If summer homework is necessary for the AP classes the students should be told prior to registering. This way they can make an informed decision if they want to take the AP course or not. For some courses, the workload is very large and therefore, in order to be prepared for the AP exam the summer work is necessary.</p>
<p>I do agree that a time schedule for the summer hw is difficult given the varying summer activities, but it does also teach time management.</p>
<p>They do know prior to registering that there will be summer homework, though I don’t think they are given many details. My oldest dropped APUSH the first day he sat down to work on the summer homework (mid-summer after spending time with other obligations) – he was so horrified by just the summer workload that he knew he didn’t want to be in the class :-o</p>
<p>D2 is supposed to be memorizing ions. There’s a test the first week back.</p>
<p>Here’s my beef. If these kids are supposedly “ready” for college level work, they should be able to cover the material in 15 or 30 weeks (depending on whether the AP course in question is typically a college semester course like calc AB or a full year course like lit and language). Summer AP homework is ridiculous.</p>
<p>Bumping back to page 1. Don’t have much to say since its not like S is doing anything for school, let alone college, but I hate seeing us sink to the depths of the threads.</p>
<p>My DS actually got out his APUSH homework today! 
Tons of vocabulary, watch 5 movies (that should be easy, right??) and write a summary. If I could just get him off of Top Gear and onto the movies! haha</p>
<p>No homework for AP English & AP Biology.</p>
<p>Shockingly, mine is working on a practice (diagnostic) PSAT today!</p>
<p>We have been suggesting that he do some studying for the PSAT and SAT II Chemistry test over the summer. Today was the first day he decided to delve into that.</p>
<p>He’s probably borderline for NMSF recognition, hence the push for the PSAT.</p>
<p>Yeah … I bought the PSAT study book but it sits unopened on top of his computer! DS is also borderline NMSF, so I’d really like him to put just a little effort into it!</p>
<p>DD is on the NMSF bubble too. Could easily go either way. I don’t want to stress her out about it, but it sure would be helpful if she got it. She did spend a few minutes studying today without my asking about it!</p>
<p>That whole NMSF thing is SO unnecessarily stressful too – they could announce the cutoffs in December of Junior year when the tests are scored and let the kids know where they stand, instead of waiting until the next September!</p>
<p>Hello fellow 2014 parents…</p>
<p>Just wanted to check in and say hello…DD14 returned home last Friday. She had a great time, but enjoyed Choate more last year. She met alot of great kids and whats even more important is the positive socialization that she had for a whole month! She is a tall girl and I think she has reached 6 feet at this point! She also picked up running(many of her fellow Smarties were runners)… but I just can’t see myself letting her run on her own here in the city! So many dangers lurk, especially for a young girl who is always open to lend a hand to someone in “need”. Maybe a can of pepper spray will allay my fears? And a stern warning against helping a stranger… no matter how helpless they appear. </p>
<p>She seems to have matured a little more and is far less cranky. I think the break was healthy for us. Teenage girls can be such a mecurial bunch!!! </p>
<p>She has 2 AP assignments that are due the first day of class… They are reading Grapes of Wrath and has been trudging along in the book… but I haven’t seen her crack it open since her return from N.H. I won’t nag… I have decided and come to the conclusion that my manner of delivery/nagging pushes her away. </p>
<p>A year left until 8/1/13. 
I say we all stop the hands of time and return to 1998 when they were so tiny/ cute and thought we were the best thing since sliced bread!!!</p>
<p>I have a sneaky trick for kids who need a little nagging – I ask “do you need me to nag you about [x] or do you have things under control?” This “reminds” without “nagging”. I have found it a helpful strategy with both teens so far. Of course you can’t keep doing it about the same [x] but it’s just a little boost. Also occasionally they will say that they could use some reminders to make sure they remain on track, thus giving me permission to “nag” in a limited and acceptable to them way.</p>
<p>D got an email reminding her of the PSAT prep class she has at school and that is starting two weeks before classes begin. Between the prep class and tennis tryouts next week she will be busy which is a good thing. She finally seems to have caught up on her sleep from her HOBY week in Chicago.</p>
<p>I’ll have my son take the PSAT this year, but he has no chance without divine intervention of being NM. He is not into reading (thus, you can hear me nagging, can’t you?), so that automatically will hurt his CR and writing scores. But, I want him to have the additional test practice. He’s ticketed to take the ACT in late October.</p>
<p>Cross country practice opens this week, so he has been balancing running, summer work for APUSH and cleaning out some stuff from his room that he no longer needs or wants. Our offer on a new house has been accepted, so I instructed him to clean out now so packing up will be easier. </p>
<p>NewHavenCTmom: Since your daughter likes running, please encourage her to join the cross country and track and field teams at her school. Many of the students who are distance runners are very academically-oriented. It would give her an outlet to meet others as well as serve as a stress reliever. We live in a rural area, and you would think it’s perfect for running. No. Too many drivers think every road has a speed limit of 55 to 75, so I fear my son running on those roads. Twice a week, I take him 12 miles to town as he can run at a high school’s track or along the trails that the town designed with a runners club. It is very safe, too. Sometimes, he will ask me to take him a third or fourth day during that week so he can log five or six miles. While he runs, I go to the grocery store or sit and read (there’s no way I’m running six miles!). When we move, it will be into this town, so there are sidewalks, running trails and parks – perfect for logging lots of miles. So do encourage your daughter to run. It will also keep her very healthy! My son had one cold last year – that came after AP exams and when he was not running regularly!</p>