Parents of the HS Class of 2015

Parents Forum Class of 20xx Community
701

<p>Nellieh: The DD’s school (as do many) offer writing across the curriculum, where in language arts and History (Civ) the students do extensive writing. The DD is a bit more left brained (math/science) than right (creative) but she is not quite the science student who has no ability to even draw a stick figure.</p>

<p>The school does have a Learning Center for students needing extra help and the school schedule is constructed to allow faculty/student meetings to occur daily. She’s taken advantage of meeting with faculty, but not the Learning Center yet. Her work has earned her B’s & B-'s, which would have been much higher grades in her old school district.</p>

<p>Thanks for the advice.</p>

702

<p>herandhismom - Math I goes through algebra and geometry, and Math II goes through Pre Calc. If she’s had PreCalc, she should definitely take Math II because the curve is MUCH more forgiving. My older son took the Lit subject test because he wasn’t particularly prepared for any of the others (other than Math II) by the end of junior year, and he figured that would be one that would use general good reading and reasoning skills, as well as knowledge that he should have already.</p>

<p>With subject tests, it’s good to go ahead and take them in May or June of the year a student has taken the relevant class. </p>

<p>ohiobassmom - some colleges dont’ use score choice and require you to send all scores for all tests you’ve taken during high school. These are mostly the very selective schools.</p>

703

<p>Thank you PonotNoir!
She’s taking precalc next year. So probably the end of next school year or early junior year she should take MathII? Have to check subject test schedules. </p>

<p>I’ve heard Lit subject is very hard. Is it true?</p>

704

<p>Wow Pinot, that must get expensive.</p>

705

<p>herandhis - I don’t know if Lit is hard. S did OK on it but not great with no prep. I think any one of them would be hard for me if I had to take one!</p>

<p>ohiobassmom - if you send the scores all at one time, it just counts as one “send” to each college. So if you send to three colleges, it will cost the same whether you’re sending just one sitting of SAT or 3 sittings of SAT and 4 subjects tests (3 X $10.50 = $31.50). It’s just one score report to each school. I think I’ve heard that ACT actually charges for each sitting reported, but I’m not sure (my kids only took ACT once each).</p>

706

<p>We did SAT once and multiple ACT, and ACT does indeed ask which date’s test you want sent and charge for each one. I just sent the best one to every school. No one asked for all tests, just the best. Only if a school super-scored (and individual sittings had higher scores on certain parts but not others) was there a reason to send more than one ACT. Only one school told me they did that though.</p>

<p>I did send one test in the “4 included free” that wasn’t the highest score, afterwards I paid to send the highest to those schools so they’d have that in place of the lower score test they’d gotten.</p>

<p>The 4 included thing is a little annoying, in that you can only do it before you know your score. Afterwards,it’s $. Kind of a racket IMO…</p>

707

<p>We only did the 4 “free” SAT scores for the very last test D’12 took (Lit. Subject) and only to schools that required all of the SAT scores, so we knew that they’d need them in any event. It’s relatively small amounts of $$ compared to everything else. . . .</p>

708

<p>Definitely take the SAT subject exams “along the way” as you finish classes and the subject material is fresh in the brain. </p>

<p>Also, pay attention to which exams are recommended or required for the colleges/programs you’re considering. E.g., many engineering programs demand SAT MathII, and some schools want to see one humanities subject plus one math/sci subject. Some programs get even more specific than that – for example Northwestern ISP wants MathII + Chem + Physics, iirc.</p>

<p>Certain subjects are not offered every time, and are only given in certain test administrations. E.g., Latin is only offered in Dec and June.</p>

<p>Finally, some kids find it difficult to maintain high performance for three solid hours of subject testing. For them, it may be better to space out subjects and only take one or two at a given sitting.</p>

<p>Yes, scheduling all the different exams can get complicated!</p>

<p>Sent from my DROID BIONIC using CC</p>

709

<p>My advice on these subject tests-learned the hard way since we had no guidance on these-is to take them as close as possible after completing the relevant classes-and not more than two at a time! My son loathed the English Lit test. I think if my daughter takes an English one-which I highly doubt-it would be the English Language one. </p>

<p>The Chem test he had to take before he was ready due to scheduling issues-he didn’t take Chem 2 until senior year and much of the material on the subject test wasn’t covered until after he took the subject test. He did well on Math II. These tests made Senior year even worse than it needed to be-I understand the poster who is upset no one told them about the test scores importance and them not even knowing to look into them-it happens all the time.</p>

<p>The SAT’s he took three times-the first December of Junior year cold just for the experience, May of Junior year with some prep, and “for real” October of Senior year. He did very well on those all three times and the last time he had his best scores in all three. I hope she takes it only twice-unlike him I think she will prep better and not need a practice sitting.</p>

<p>Our school has very limited AP classes so he also self-studied for 3 of them and managed to pass all of them even though they are taken in May and again some of the material wasn’t covered until after the test date since his school year ran almost to the middle of June. Unfortunately his score was only high enough in one to gain credit at his college. I wonder what other schools around here do with the last month after their kids have taken the AP exams-what are they being taught?</p>

<p>My daughter is going to benefit from all this and already has. She will have the required Art and Tech classes out of the way by the end of the year. They are having a scheduling meeting today and I anticipate a very hard year for her next year with Honors level classes in English, History, Biology, Chemistry, Algebra II, and Spanish 3. She is also joining a finance certificate program and will have required classes for that. I will under no circumstances allow her to have the same English teacher my son had so that is going to make things interesting!</p>

<p>My son took band and that really set him back on having certain classes. He had to drop it in Senior year even though he wanted to keep it-it just wouldn’t work out. He made an All-State band as a HS freshman so that was a hard decision but he really had not choice.</p>

<p>I will have this all figured out once she gets her schedule-which won’t be until the first week of sophomore year. She had 4 schedules this fall before they finally got it as good as it was going to get-I understood how important it was to get the required classes done and wouldn’t take no for an answer. They just love me in the guidance office!</p>

<p>She doesn’t participate in band but plays two school sports and is in a couple of clubs. Summer around here will be very easy-lots of beach time! My son never wanted to do any summer academic programs and my daughter won’t either as far as I can tell-I give them the info but he was never interested-he liked to spend his summers around the neighborhood with his friends and writing-he seems to be doing OK and I trust she’ll make good use of her time! Sometimes doing nothing is doing something very important too!</p>

<p>I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer on summer programs-if your child wants to take them that’s great, if not I think they’ll be fine too.</p>

710

<p>Pepper - I agree wholeheartedly on the importance of unstructured time! For many reasons.</p>

<p>I don’t believe there is an English Language subject test - maybe there used to be? Or maybe you’re thinking of AP tests? </p>

<p>And good for you for getting in there and advocating for your D getting the schedule she needed!</p>

711

<p>I finally got a peek at the 4-year plan that D’15 worked out with her GC. The meeting happened last week, but we’ve all been running around like chickens without heads, so last night was the first chance for me to see it.</p>

<p>It all looks very do-able. At the moment, I think D’15 will stay local and not attend the residential magnet school her sister is about to graduate from. I have mixed feelings about that. H does not. He wants his baby at home.</p>

712

<p>No there is a Language one-which would have been far more suited to his skill set and prior instruction. Oh well I don’t know how I missed that one!</p>

<p>OOPS-that is AP not Subject-thanks for correcting me! See how easy it is to get this mixed up?</p>

<p>I would have lost my mind without CC!</p>

713

<p>Yes - for all the craziness that has to be skirted, CC is soooooo helpful in many ways!</p>

714

<p>The issue regarding band has been a serious one in our household for a while now. Up until last weekend, D. decided not to do band after this year so she could do other things, like web design, journalism, etc, as electives. But after All State, she is so excited and decided to do band all 4 years. So we just signed her up. next year, she will have no time for lunch and will have take PE in the summer. (We’ll see how she feels when she realizes she has to sacrifice things she loves to do in the summer, like CTY!)</p>

715

<p>^^^ Another consideration is that schools don’t usually award honor’s grade-points for music, art, and drama classes. This can drag down a kid’s GPA and class rank relative to peers that take more academic honors and AP classes.</p>

716

<p>Yes that happened to my son and cost him in the rankings (per his calculations) since the band teacher was not an easy grader on top of the class being unweighted. However, he said if he had to do it all over again he would have done the same thing-he loved being in the band and it helped him a lot socially to integrate into the HS-he was at that age very socially awkward and being part of the band helped him a lot. I wish our school didn’t rank-I think it causes a lot of problems and can lead kids to make class choices for the wrong reasons.</p>

<p>I think we have different approaches in this thread and I think that is great. I don’t think there is any “right” way to raise your children. I know many of us found this place through searching for answers to questions-I found it when I looked for the PSAT cutoff scores in my state for my son. </p>

<p>I come from the point of view that everyone wants what is best for their children. Therefore, I try my best to not get caught up in the competition and judgement and black and white answers you will see from time to time on CC. </p>

<p>I think we have a nice group here and I look forward to sharing my experiences and opinions with you. That’s all they are-mine. Everyone here is coming from a different place and we can all learn so much from each other. That is truly where CC can be such a gift.</p>

<p>herandhis it sounds like your daughter really loves that band and is willing to sacrifice other things she loves-like the CTY program-to make it happen. That is wonderful!</p>

717

<p>Nicely said Pepper! I agree with you about how nice and supportive the group here is. </p>

<p>I’m glad our HS doesn’t rank. They do give recognition to kids with the top 25 or so GPA, which I guess is the top 2 or 3%.</p>

718

<p>Our HS doesn’t rank, but like PN’s gives the top 2% of students a special stole to wear at graduation. My D’s 4 years of unweighted orchestra classes will likely put her GPA below the cutoff, and take her out of the running for the honors stoles. But she has known all along that that would be the case, and she long-ago made her peace with it. Orchestra has been a fabulous experience for her, so no regrets!</p>

<p>One thing our HS does, which I heartily applaude, is that they select graduation speakers by holding a Speak-Off competition among seniors, rather than just automatically awarding Val/Sal speaking honors by GPA. During late winter, the senior-year English teachers invite all seniors (not just honor’s students) to submit a draft speech for the Speak-Off. The speeches are evaluated anonymously (without names) so that every contestant has a fair chance. The top dozen or so are invited to a second round, where they present their speech to a panel of teachers and administrators. The panel then select the two graduation speakers. I really like this method because:
(1) it’s more fair – everyone gets a chance, and they’re not making an ugly choice between kids who might be separated by only a couple one-thousandths of a GPA point
(2) it diminishes the incentive to game the system and chase those one-thousandths of a GPA point to become Val and Sal.
(3) we hear from a broad array of students (the year-before-last one of the speakers was a special ed student, and it was <em>really</em> interesting to hear her perspective on the HS experience)
(4) the speeches are always high quality and well-delivered, making the graduation ceremony more fun!</p>

719

<p>I am with you, Pepper that I also wish our HS did not rank. The competition is intense because of the auto admission policy in Texas. Many kids give up music, art ,drama and sports in order to do more APs. I believe kids need to be involved in something that fosters their engagement and interests within their school or community. </p>

<p>Our spring break is coming up. Both kids have the same week off. My college son will be home while my HS son will be away to staff a leadership camp.</p>

<p>Enjoy the weekend everyone!</p>

720

<p>Yes I love this group. You are all so supportive and helpful. I don’t know what I’d do without CC.
@Pepper, in fact she is not willing to sacrifice CTY. That makes things very difficult. :(</p>

<p>Still, band is nice, even though she has no intention to major/minor/double major music. I think it’s more social than music.</p>

<p>In junior/senior year, band class has “H” in the title. That helps a little bit.</p>