<p>On the PSAT: D16 tells me they are taking it in school , the first or second Wednesday of October. Anyone else’s school doing this, or do you have to register them and take it on the Saturday? That’s smack in the middle of marching band season so the Wednesday will work better. </p>
<p>Some schools offer it on the Wednesday date during school day, others offer it on Saturday Oct 18th. Our school is a Saturday school. We have to register for the test some time in September. Unlike, the SAT you register through the school and not the College Board there is a fee involved (usually) but around here it varies greatly from school to school.</p>
<p>@kandcsmom - my son’s school registers the kids for the PSAT but it’s on a Saturday - so we have the worst of both worlds because I have to find a different non-Saturday school, register him, pay, and also take him out of school missing classes. (ugh) - We don’t test on Sat for religious reasons. I was going to just have him skip the PSAT but people on CC recommended doing it.</p>
<p>S’s school makes it mandatory to take the PSAT for all students (other than seniors). They offer it on a weekday and the rest of the day is a day off for the kids - I believe this year, it is on Oct 15th. Registered S for the SAT as well - need to do the registration for the ACT.</p>
<p>Who else is doing the SAT the week before PSAT? Was that AsleepAtTheWheel? I mentioned that stratagem to the GC at the kids’ school and she was surprised, but agreed it would probably work well for S&D.</p>
<p>I register D16 for November 8. Do not know if she will be ready by then. With 6 APs she does not have time to work on her test preparation. I know that a lot of kids spent this summer getting ready for SAT/ACT/PSAT. Not us. Now we are going to play the catch up game.</p>
<p>D is taking the SAT for the second time in January. She needs time to work on her essay writing and will have time to study on Christmas break. </p>
<p>More on PrepScholar - today is the last day of our free trial period and we have decided to continue on with the program. The honeymoon period is over, D complained that it’s not like the real SAT because it doesn’t ask questions from easy to hard, it <em>only</em> has her do hard questions. Based on the pretest she tested out of the easier questions so she is only dealing with the more difficult material and not wasting her time on things she already knows. She has to actually put some effort into her test prep with this program, something she’s not used to doing. The company suggests about forty hours of study for the maximum score improvement but I don’t think it will take her that long. She should be able to complete the program, expect the essay portion, before the PSAT. I looked at the sections she was assigned this week and I see that they have her taking a real practice test so that should have the easier questions too and make her happy;-) Of course I won’t know if this helped until she actually takes the test for real but I’m hopeful.</p>
<p>@petrichor11 – We’re not yet registered, but the plan is for S16 to take the SAT in November. He has a four-day weekend a week after the PSAT, and the plan (which he is not yet aware of) is for him to prep for the Writing section essay (which is not on the PSAT) over that weekend. I’m sure I’ve mentioned it already on this thread, but the book “How to Write a Killer SAT Essay” helped S14 immensely. Even though he didn’t finish the last sentence of his essay it raised him from an 8 to a 10, which was high enough for an 800 on the section. </p>
<p>@3scoutsmom – I may have missed it, but when is she taking the SAT for the first time? And, in reference to your last note, unless she’s already taken the SAT you’ll never know how helpful the prep course is. It’s not a controlled experiment, and even if she does extremely well you don’t know whether she would have done just as well without the course. S16 did well enough on the PSAT last year to make the NMSF cut-off, but every vocabulary word guess that he made turned out to be correct. He had about three of those, and if they’d turned out to be incorrect he would have fallen below the cutoff. So much of this is a crap-shoot. I’m not convinced that all the prep in the world would have covered those three words. . . One of the top swimmers on his club swim team (headed for Brown) was a NMS, and that was mentioned a number of times at the end of the year banquet. S16 will never swim as fast as that kid, but he would like his teammates (few of whom go to his high school) to know that he’s not just another pretty face. </p>
<p>@AsleepAtTheWheel She took the SAT in March and got a 2150 (CR760 Math 710 Writing 680) When she took the PSAT in OCT last year she only got a 214 not high enough in TX she needs to score 219/220. Most of her mistakes were careless though. At least if she doesn’t make the cut this year I will be satisfied that she gave it her best shot.</p>
<p>@3scoutsmom – It’s not necessary for S16, but we bribed S14. With the incentive that the nature of the car that he’d be driving his senior year depended on his SAT score (although it really didn’t) he raised it from a 2160 to a 2340. I know that I shouldn’t have had to bribe him to do something that was in his own self-interest, but at that point he operated on a pretty primitive level.<br>
I bet that with the Prep Scholar and a bit of a sense of urgency she can get the points that she needs. But she does need that sense that it matters. Tell her I’ll buy her a gift if she makes it!</p>
<p>@AsleepAtTheWheel no bribes needed, thankfully because I doubt she could be bribed! She’s just not that kind of kid. She does get the importance and she is a dutiful daughter that we do as she is asked but that doesn’t stop her from grumbling about it 
</p>
<p>We met an old friend for lunch today, someone D respects and admires, and found out that she is an OU alum. Our friend was so excited that D was considering OU she just gushed about how wonderful OU is and how she loved the honors college. I think that was just the motivation D16 needed:-)</p>
<p>I loved hearing that your S14 pulled his score from a 2160 to a 2340, that gives me hope. I’d be dancing in the street if D16 pulls a 2300. I sure hope you got him a very nice car!</p>
<p>@kandcsmom, as others have said, the date that the PSAT is offered does depend on the school. Ours is Saturday.</p>
<p>@3scoutsmom, good to hear the report on PrepScholar. It does sound like an effective use of time.</p>
<p>@asleepatthewheel, interesting about the 3 vocabulary words that could have made or broken! I do agree that the exam can be a bit of a crap shoot.</p>
<p>Can’t remember who asked, but we are doing the October SAT and PSAT as well.</p>
<p>@AKFirefly : I knew it was someone on this board!<br>
Day four of school, and we’re finally getting into the routine. D’s actually getting out of the bathroom without me nagging (she and S share one and she gets up a half hour earlier to accommodate girly hair primping). So that’s new over the last two years. I have hopes she may yet become someone a roommate can stand to live with by the time she’s in a dorm.</p>
<p>@petrichor11 - S is doing the Oct PSAT and SAT as well. We figured he’d be in the testing mood that week, so why not ?? It’s his first attempt at the SAT - he has gone back to school armed with books that we bought. Hopefully, they will actually be used :)</p>
<p>No schedules here yet with school beginning Sept 2nd. I called the school and they are not sending any out this year- students will get them on the first day. That will be a nightmare of changes the first week.</p>
<p>I know that my son’s schedule is going to be very messed up since he has some unusual requests (for his school) so I spoke to a Vice Principal about it. First they only had 4 classes out of 8 filled in and one was wrong. The worst part is that son is going into AP Calculus AB and AP German 4 which are both only offered once a day at the same time. On top of that the school no longer has a German teacher and the current plan is to physically share a teacher with another high school (which won’t work because there are too many classes of German at each school) OR they are going to set son’s school up as a distance learning site for the German class. </p>
<p>Our current plan is to request that son be placed in the IB Math Methods class which will prep him for taking AP Calculus BC in 12th grade. I don’t think that request will go over well with the school. </p>
<p>The IB Program is the reason the school only has one AP Calculus AB class and only one German 4 class. Our school does not offer German for IB and the IB kids don’t take Calculus AB so there is little demand for the classes. </p>
<p>@Dragonflygarden - can you ask to get the Calc class instead of the German, and do the German online or via Rosetta Stone (ideally at the school’s expense)? It seems like the German plan is kind of dodgy, so maybe not worth sacrificing the Calc for that…?</p>
<p>@fretfulmother that is the 2nd choice if they will not allow him to take the IB math class. </p>
<p>I just bought Rosetta Stone German 1-5 at Target about a week ago on super deal for around $140. I’m thinking he can use that to keep up with his German and either take AP German in 12th grade or just take the SAT 2 German or the AP German test after 11th. I also suggested German as a night class at the local CC but son’s schedule is pretty full and that would be difficult. </p>
<p>Virginia DOE offers a lot of AP classes online including several languages however German is not offered at all. You’re right the plan does sound dodgy and I just emailed the head of the foreign language department for the school system to see if they can offer some insight. </p>
<p>Ok, this made me laugh
<a href=“Campus Tour Guide Reminds Students At Each Stop They Have To Get In First”>Campus Tour Guide Reminds Students At Each Stop They Have To Get In First;
<p>Okay, I have a question, because this sounds weird.
S tells me that two different teachers have told him that, if you pay for an AP test and pass it, the AP board refunds your $89 fee. That sounds…not right. Is it?</p>