<p>@petrichor11 he is only studying for the PSAT right now. Like I said, this is a crazy year. The one thing he has said is that as far as his classes go, he feels like junior year us the year you go from getting a lot of homework to just having to study. He always felt homework was a waste of time, so in reality, I guess it is a little easier right now. </p>
<p>Just catching up with a day’s worth of posts on this thread.<br>
Regarding scoring the SAT essay: The essay is scored by two graders, with each one giving a score between 1 to 6 points. The two scores are added together to get the final score, obviously out of a possible 12 points. Here’s the College Board’s ‘framework’ for the scoring:
<a href=“Understanding SAT Scores – SAT Suite | College Board”>http://professionals.collegeboard.com/testing/sat-reasoning/scores/essay/guide</a></p>
<p>BTW, if the two graders scores differ by more than one point, and third grader is brought in. Apparently that happens rarely. </p>
<p>@seal16, eek, 9 rejections! Interesting. Did he apply to an exceptional number of schools, or all very selective/lottery type schools?</p>
<p>While we are talking about giving up sports, a student of mine who isn’t exactly setting the world on fire academically, asked me last week if Dartmouth was a good college because they are interested in having her play for them. It seems like the best way to get into the best colleges is to be good at a sport.</p>
<p>@mysonsdad, being recruited is one thing but being accepted is another. That league does not give athletic scholarships. They (athelete) will get read first and the standards are a little lower but not much.
They help some with the COA but not fully.<br>
You might want to spend some time on the CC forum for recruiting students.
My D was heavily recruited until an injury put her out of her sport.
</p>
<p>No NMSF from our high school this year. Relatively few from our county altogether; fewer than could be expected at the IB high schools, even. Wonder what’s up with that?</p>
<p>Wow, this thread is pretty active - having a hard time keeping up :)</p>
<p>@kandcsmom - you asked about doing both the ACT/SAT. D (class of 2011) did the SAT first. Got a decent score (not fabulous). We asked her to take it again. She did, scored exactly the same the second time. What are the odds? Based on this site, I asked her to take the ACT - she agreed, but didn’t do any prep. Didn’t even look at the format. Scored way higher on the ACT the first time around (about 80-100 points more than the SAT score). She then says she wants to take the ACT again because the format threw her off, she could have done so much better if she knew the format. [ Yeah, Yeah…didn’t I ask her to look?] Registered her again for the ACT (fall of senior year) and she rocked it. Her ACT score was about 200 points better than her SAT - so we just sent the ACT score to schools and didn’t send the SAT at all.</p>
<p>Based on this, have asked S to take both the SAT and the ACT. On a practice test for both, he definitely did better on the ACT.</p>
<p>About giving up stuff in junior/senior years - it is almost inevitable. Their activities are numerous, their courses hard. They have to make tough choices. D gave up her favorite orchestra class junior year to squeeze in two APs into the schedule. S learnt this earlier than D - he had to give up his fall/winter sport in sophomore year. This year, it looks like he’s going to have to give up Quiz Bowl for theater. It’s kind of sad that they have to make these choices…but unfortunately, this is where we are right now…</p>
<p>@Bajamm Unfortunately her project will take about 9 months and really needs to be started in Sept or Oct. If she doesn’t get it started soon she’ll have no choice but to wait until senior year and although she can still earn the award she won’t compete it in time to participate in the state wide award ceremony or the council scholarship program. What kills me is that it’s just not that hard to get started! She already has the project approved by the council Gold committee but there’s just no time.</p>
<p>@petrichor11. 5 NMSFs at our school. About what we usually have. 3 are teammates of DS so I am encouraging him to “breath the same air”. Probably will not make a bit of difference in his scores but a good influence regardless. 
</p>
<p>D is taking UPUSH this year. Her teacher recommended that she do her reviews with the AMSCO United States History, Preparing for the Advanced Placement Exam. She is working in this book but would like to confirm her answers to the questions. We cannot find an answer key to this book at all. Any suggestions?</p>
<p>Hmm… we may max out Prepscholar’s lessons. This week she has 9 lessons and a practice test and nothing showing under “future lessons.” She also only has nine skills still showing purple on her progress page so we may be closer to the end then I thought. I know she still has several more Blue Book practice tests they can assign her. She’s also skipped the essays on the practice tests she’s done so far and will go back and work on those after the PSAT. It will be interesting to see what she is assigned after she completes these lessons.</p>
<p>So we have a little less than five weeks until the PSAT, if she’s truly at the end of the lessons this week She’ll have four more weeks to prep on her own. I may have her only do the Blue book practice test assigned this week (it will be her third) and save the rest for after the PSAT. I’d like her to actually do the PWN math book. At this point she’s “thumbed through it.” Any idea how long it takes to do this book is you already have a fairly good grasp of the material? I’ve also signed her up for two proctored practice PSAT tests and a 2 hour PSAT writing review geared toward those going for National Merit through the local company we used for original test prep, these extras sessions are at no additional charge 
I think she will be as well prepared for the PSAT as she possible can be!</p>
<p>My S missed taking the Practice test for PrepScholar this weekend and was going to do it today but when he got home it wouldn’t let him on. So I guess he now has to wait another two weeks. That stinks because I wanted to see his progress. </p>
<p>@3scoutsmom – The PWN math book is relatively lightweight c/w the grammar and critical reading books. There’s a lot that she’ll be able to breeze through. She should try to distinguish between the review material (which she prob doesn’t need much of) and the strategy/technique stuff, which might be helpful. And she should probably do all the exercises, and make sure that she understands any problems that she gets wrong (if any!). But all that shouldn’t take a huge amount of time. </p>
<p>I think S is not yet giving up much. School basically just started and he hasn’t had an exam yet…he always tends to kick into gear AFTER the grades start their downward trend…so…we will see what he ends up giving up…</p>
<p>@Mysonsdad you might try to email <a href="mailto:Allen@prepscholar.com">Allen@prepscholar.com</a> and ask that the practice test be reassigned to this week. not sure how it all works but I’ll bet it can my manually assigned from his end.</p>
<p>My D so far has given up just the boyfriend. Apparently he was a lower priority than school, sports and job.</p>
<p>@Booajo – Ah, a wise choice on her part. </p>
<p>@sophmore1 is this what you are looking for?
<a href=“http://www.sjusd.org/pioneer/downloads/AP_US_History_Review_Book_Answer_Key.pdf”>http://www.sjusd.org/pioneer/downloads/AP_US_History_Review_Book_Answer_Key.pdf</a></p>
<p>I am looking for the “New” 2015 Answer Key. That is for the older edition. Thank you!</p>
<p>@Booajo She is very wise for her age.</p>