<p>My daughter is in the mock trial. they won in the county. Yesterday they went out of town for a tournament and they lost. 
She got home at 9pm and had a ton of homework…</p>
<p>Just signed up d. for CTY chemistry. She is so excited!</p>
<p>And so it starts again…</p>
<p>D2 just received her first college marketing mailing form Vanderbilt. I think we have had 6 months free of received college mailings for D1.( college class 2015) D2 will be very excited.</p>
<p>All is well with second semester. She is happy and finding her group of friends. She has a tough literature teacher and she is working her little butt off. I knew he was a tough teacher- but I think it is good for her. Both my girls are " gifted" and some classes are little too easy for them. It is good that she is pushed. I am glad she has him this semester and not last semester when she was juggling Varsity softball and school work. By the time travel ball hots up in the spring she should be used to what he expects.</p>
<p>Congrats herandhis on the mock trial success.</p>
<p>We haven’t participate in the CTY programs, DUke TIP is pushed around here. Looks like a great program and I hope Maxwell’s D enjoys.</p>
<p>What a beautiful day in GA, 60 and the sun is shining. Time for a walk!</p>
<p>Hello folks, I have been away from this for a while. We are focusing on college seach for D 13 at this time. It feels so far away for S15. </p>
<p>Our school offers both AP and IB courses. S set his schedule for next year which will include two AP classes (AP Lit and AP World). I am also looking to see if we can get him into AP Chem as well (he has to stay after class to do that one). </p>
<p>DId anyone else have their freshmen take the PSAT? S took it this year and did well. He actually scored higher than D who is a junior. Taking PSAT as a freshman is fairly standard in our school. </p>
<p>So glad to see so many are adjusting to High School.</p>
<p>I’m always glad to see the 2015 thread pop back up!</p>
<p>nellieh - our HS had all the freshmen take it this year (it’s the first year they’ve done that). He scored very well too - higher than S1 did junior year, although not as high as S2 did soph or junior year. I’m not quite sure why all the freshmen took it. Maybe the school thinks it will help the kids get used to the test before it starts counting? It sounds like your S will have quite a heavy load next year! I think S’s first AP will be junior year. Well, I guess I know it will because he’s already filled out his schedule for next year! Has your son already had a Chemistry class?</p>
<p>D2 is planning on AP World and AP Env Science for sophomore year. AP world is a lot of work but Env Science is what I refer to as AP light. One semester and since she completed a specialized science program this year she should be well prepared.
AP chem is offered to sophomores at our HS too. No way D2 is taking it. I have absolutely no confidence in the Chem teachers at the HS. She will take gifted Chem and the following year if she wants she can take AP Chem at the science center. AP Chem is a tough class.</p>
<p>On PSAT, d took it as a freshman. She did well. She also took it as an 8th grader.</p>
<p>Congratulations Gibson and nellish on the PSAT. My D. didn’t take PSAT. But she took the SAT with CTY in 8th grade. Did well. She’ll do PSAT next year. I’ve heard that if they do well in PSAT, college information will start coming in. Is that true? This is our oldest, we are clueless.</p>
<p>Yes. I think that is where she received the Vanderbilt mailing and Univ Of Tampa keeps emailing her!</p>
<p>Herandhis have your D set up an email address just to receive college emails in…there will be MANY. gmail works well for this sort of thing. Make sure she has a sensible email address. Not: cutiegirl@**********- has to be something acceptable to admissions officers.</p>
<p>Yes - my kids set up "JohnDoecollege@yahoo accounts. Somehow my email must have gotten entered somewhere - I still have colleges recruiting me. ;)</p>
<p>On the testing, the student can check the box not to share contact info with colleges. The up side - you don’t get nearly as much mail (you still get some). The downside - sometimes the mail includes application fee waivers, so if you get one from a school you want to apply to, it can save you $35-$75.</p>
<p>Pinot= S did not take chem yet. In their school the kids who opt to turn the general chem course into AP need to spend extra time after school. D who is a Junior did not do this- she struggled in chemistry. The school’s chem teacher is not great and not very engaged. S does very well in math/sciences, BUT is very very lazy. I am not sure if he has it in him to take the extra AP.</p>
<p>My D’12 checked the “don’t share” box on all of her tests. She did get some mail, but mostly not from schools where she hadn’t shown some interest. She missed out on one fee waiver that she would have used, and it may be that they had sent it to her and she didn’t read the mail.</p>
<p>D’15 is trying desperately to figure out next year, academically, socially, EC-wise. She’s been in a foul mood for several days working it out. This is no fun.</p>
<p>IJustDrive - hugs to your D as she struggles to figure out where she fits in! Sounds stressful.</p>
<p>nellieh - that doesn’t sound like an ideal situation! Does the teacher have a good record of kids doing well on the AP test? My middle son (senior now) had the “worst” chem teacher sophomore year. He ended up hating it, while kids who had any of the other 3 teachers loved it. I’ve already requested that S’15 not have that teacher next year!</p>
<p>S is working on figuring out his schedule too - he keeps asking if he should take any APs but in our district next year is still early for most to do APs and he’s doing so well with balance this year I don’t want him to get overwhelmed yet. He was mainly asking because with his class they are now requiring a personal finance/economics class for graduation and he wasn’t sure if he should take that class or AP Micro/Macro Econ. I am thinking he should go with the standard one since his class is the first required to take it and it thus will likely be all 10th graders taking it next year but I’d love insight from anyone who had a child take AP Micro/Macro.</p>
<p>Otherwise he’s taking:</p>
<p>Spanish IV
Theater II
English 10 Adv
Health & PE II
Adv Pre-Calc
Int Chemistry</p>
<p>shilly - it’s just so hard to get advice from other people regarding AP classes, because schools are all so different! My oldest S went to a brand new HS with teachers who were teaching AP’s for the first time. The classes weren’t that hard, but overall the students didn’t get great scores. S’12 goes to a huge public school with a big population of advanced students (think 50 national merit finalists this year). The AP classes are very difficult, and some are very time consuming, but in general the students do pretty well on the AP tests. </p>
<p>In our school, seniors take one semester Econ and one semester Government. It can be regular or AP for either one. S took AP Macro 1st semester and liked it well enough he signed up for AP Micro 2nd semester. It hasn’t been real time consuming for S, but different student and different teacher may have a different experience. </p>
<p>If your school weights for AP classes, it’s nice to get the GPA bump. And my kids take mostly honors or AP classes because they like the vibe in the class better than in regular classes (more serious students, etc). Except they’ve mostly stayed away from the History AP’s because of the reputation for tons of work, and it’s not the kind of work they like to do. </p>
<p>S’s schedule next year is very similar to your son’s!</p>
<p>Honors Pre-Calc
Honors Eng 10/ Honors Speech
Digital Electronics
Honors Chem
Spanish 2
Choir
Theater</p>
<p>My S15 wants to take 2 APs next year-World and Euro. I talked him out of taking Euro because I dont think he realizes how much reading and work he has to do with two AP history classes.</p>
<p>Testing-Our district offers practice PSAT sophomore year and administers the official one junior year. There are some booster clubs in the district offer practice tests(PSAT, ACT, SAT) with nominal fee. I dont think Ill send him to that this year.</p>
<p>Emails-When S1 was applying colleges we were so overwhelmed with all the college emails. Eventually I asked S1 to unsubscribe from them all. It is a great idea to have an email address just to receive those emails.</p>
<p>Y’all are lucky your HSs offer 7 periods. Ours only offers 6 period. </p>
<p>My D is distraught because she wants to continue to Adv. Drama with her friends (she is in Freshman Drama this year), but there’s no room for it in the schedule without displacing an academic course. Several of her friends plan to take either math or history over the summer to make room for drama next year. But our school district’s summer classes are regular-level (no honors/AP) and also cut the kid out of honors going forward. My D is more academically inclined, and more ambitious in her college plans, so I am strongly discouraging her from following her friends.</p>
<p>My older D (class of 2012) did take online summer courses to clear room in her HS class schedule for Orchestra. We found an AP Government class (through Laurel Springs Online) that worked fairly well for her Sophomore summer, but their regular-level Economics class she took her Junior summer was stultifying. We might look for online summer options for D2015 – but she needs to balance that against other activities she wants to do this summer (dance, ornithology, and National Latin Convention). </p>
<p>Life is full of trade-offs!</p>
<p>Thanks for the suggestions. We’ll certainly do that.
@pinnonoir, IT IS FUNNY (what you got from the colleges!) 
</p>
<p>D.15’s prelim plan for next year</p>
<ul>
<li>AP chem (2 periods)
-AP psychology or human geography</li>
<li>H. Trig/precal</li>
<li>H. English</li>
<li>H. French III</li>
<li>Art</li>
</ul>
<p>For EC - Mock trial, French club, community orchestra, figure skating, maybe tennis in school. (Sometimes I feel she makes herself too busy. But she loves all these and doesn’t want to give up any. but, she is by no means a well organized person. So she will have to either give up some, or improve her organizational skills.) </p>
<p>She also loves to make movies. She is now fervently working on a movie for National History Day. She also does that as community service - for schools, board of Ed, making promotional videos for education events. She has made good name for herself by making movies for people/events in our area. 
</p>
<p>Will keep playing her piano and clarinet. Sniff, can’t do band with school anymore because chemistry takes double period.</p>
<p>I honestly don’t understand why everyone is so eager to have their 8th and 9th graders sacrifice a Saturday morning to take PSATs that don’t count for anything! OK, maybe once in 10th grade to get an early read on testing ability and diagnose what to study for the “real” PSAT and SAT in 11th grade. Also to compare with the PLAN to see if their better-suited to the SAT or ACT. </p>
<p>But … you really don’t need to start practicing test-taking 3 whole years beforehand! When it does come time to practice for the exams, it’s cheaper and more convenient to buy the College Board practice book and have them practice on their own schedule at home. Also, its better pedagogically because they can go over their right/wrong answers in realtime.</p>
<p>herandhisMom – my D2015 is doing a skit for National History Day … with some of her Drama friends. :)</p>
<p>Hi Everyone,
My D2 is a HS 2015, I’ve been lurking in other posts for D1, who is 2012. D2 is working toward the IB program at her HS but is not as confident as D1. She’s not a sharp mathematically as D1 either and this shakes her confidence.
She’s also going through some heartache since her Pre-IB choices are fairly constrained and she feels like her “electives” are not real electives That she has to take only certain electives for her to be positioned for IB course her Junior year. I feel for her because she’s a really neat kid, albeit one who’s a little too social. One of her gripes is that for her to participate in Student Government, which she has longed to do for years but always seems to be in the wrong place at the wrong time due to school moves, she says she’s required to sign up for a certain class. But she does not have room in her schedule due to the pre-IB requirements she has to take. It breaks her heart, and mine, that she’s painted into a corner already. I do believe that IB will ultimately benefit her but I wish they would allow more flexibility at her school.</p>