<p>We don’t have weighted grades, nor honors, nor AP. Classes are simply offered in long blocks, at a rigorous pace, with additional help for those who need it and the opportunity to work at higher levels for those who can. Students can take “Running Start” at the nearest CC for both HS and college credit, for free (juniors and seniors).</p>
<p>It’s getting busy for Sseakid. She was invited to join the speech team, which begins meeting today. Since she is very opinionated and never shuts up, the teacher who advises the group figured she’d be natural. She was also selected to go on a marine science cruise in Puget Sound next week. The kids-15 each from the freshman and sophomore classes-run the science experiments, do all the cooking and boat cleaning, and all the sailing on the trip back. D is a city kid and is not fond of open water nor camping in tents (they sleep both on the boat and on an island, depending on the day), but she really wants to do this and is nervously excited.</p>
<p>The after school program she tutors in is back up and running so she’s started that as well. She says it took her a moment to readjust her expectations of the kids-this group is only just starting kindergarten and her summer kids were already in school. She’s already got her little shadow, a 4 yo who started school a year early. She says he comes up to her knees-he’s GOT to be taller that that I think!</p>
<p>So what’s up with you all? The district where Sseakid goes to school sponsors college and career readiness beginning in 8th grade, so on the 16th, ALL kids in grades-12 will be doing something college related. The 8th graders will do career exploration, 9th and 11th grade will takes PSAT’s free of charge, 12th grade will do SAT’s, also free, if needed, or college application work with advisers. 10th grade will do college readiness activities. Then on Nov. 8 the National College Fair is in town and D’s entire high school will be going to that. </p>
<p>The marine bio cruise was just “ok” for the kid. She didn’t like camping, the foul-weather gear was put to much use due to our crappy weather, and she was cold and uncomfortable much of the time. She enjoyed the science component and the cooking. Classes seem to be moving along-not even very few grades so far as it’s barely mid-quarter.</p>
<p>Our 9th graders take a “practice PSAT”, whatever that means. I’m pretty sure it’s like the “no risk SAT’s” they give later in the year, where they give the kids an old test under standard conditions. </p>
<p>The school pays for the 10th graders to take it, and of course the 11th graders take it too, although they have to pay for themselves. I’m not sure of the logic of charging them and not the 10th graders. The 12th graders get to sleep in tomorrow.</p>
<p>Allergies are driving my son nuts here. He’s missed 7 of the last 12 days, and is swamped with make up work. I’m imagining that he’s going to fall asleep on his test booklet tomorrow, so I don’t think his score will be predictive of anything. If his test score matches his eye exam score (20/20) do you think College Confidential will allow him to stay?</p>
<p>Oh no! Allergies again! Your poor kiddo! The 8th graders took a “practice PSAT” last year-I never did find out how it’s different from a “real” one. I think maybe you’re right about it being an old one. I hope your son gets some relief soon!</p>
<p>I took DD’17 to another city for PSAT exam. She wasn’t ready for it and she’s panic. She didn’t bring her ID. OMG. I had to drive 1 hour back home to take the ID back.</p>
<p>I can’t compare DD’ 17 to my DS’13 who are in Ivy school now. DS’13 know what he wants and has motivation for everything. </p>
<p>I don’t know if the 2nd child is different from the 1st one.</p>
<p>CuriousKid says the literacy part of the practice PSAT was easy but the math was really hard, which is not surprising since he’s had about 8 weeks of Geometry and no Algebra 2. Apparently we get scores in January.</p>
<p>CuriousJane: I am the one who is curious now but does your school require the PSAT for freshmen? I can’t imagine why anyone would voluntarily take this test as a freshman. Especially, a kid who has not had 2/3 of the math that the test covers. What is the benefit to him?</p>
<p>My son is taking it because his school requires that all 9, 10, 11 grade students take it. My son has had Alg and Geomentry and one quarter of Alg 2 so at least he has has most of the math tested. But most of the 9th graders have had only one quarter Alg. What a waste of time for them.</p>
<p>It is my understanding that the accrediting organization requires that students take standardized tests once a year as a condition of being accredited. I can honestly say that if it was not required he would have benefited from the extra few hours of sleep that he would have gained.</p>
<p>The school has all the 9th graders take a free “practice” test. I it’s an old test think they pay Kaplan to administer and score it. The 10th and 11th graders take the real thing.</p>
<p>I might have thought about having him skip it and asking to use that time to deal with the massive load of catch up work he has, but he told me about it at like 10 p.m. the night before.</p>
<p>I don’t know that I thought it was particularly useful, but I do think that the PSAT/SATs lurk big in the imagination of the 9th graders in our pressured, college focused suburb and what he came away from it with is that it’s not this big scary thing, that it’s manageable and there was a lot he could do and would be more next time. </p>
<p>For us, my son also has rarely used testing accommodations at school (stop clock, and 1:1/small group due to allergies that can be really disruptive to both him and other students around him), and so I think it was a little helpful to see what it was like to take the test without them so we can start thinking about whether to gather the documentation to ask for them on the real tests. My guess is that we won’t ask for them for PSAT/SAT/ACT and that if his allergies are acting up the day of he’ll just drop out, but we may need to request something for AP and/or IB tests since those happen at the height of allergy season, and from my understanding there’s not an alternative test date at a different time of the year.</p>
<p>Our D’s entire district takes the PSAT in 9th and 11th grade, and SAT’s as seniors. Students who have severe learning difficulties get several other options and can also opt out completely. The district pays for it, and it’s given during school hours-no getting up early. The idea is to show kids what it’s like, what they need to work towards, what classes they will need to get good scores and go on to college. A study comissioned by the district had shown that too many lower income and minority kids-both large populations-were not taking the tests or moving on to college.</p>
<p>This program was only started last year so it’s too soon to know if it’s been successful, but in D’s own school, every senior thus far has gone on to college even though a large percentage of them were lower income and minorities. So I see the value of practicing.</p>
<p>Curious Jane: Thank you for the explanation. I can understand wanting to demystify the exam but I think taking it a sophomore is fine, especially for kids who don’t start the HS math sequence two years early.</p>
<p>My son took the SAT for the Duke TIP program in 7th grade. He also took his school’s scholarship exam in 8th grade. My understanding of the scholarship exam is that it is a private administration of the PSAT.</p>
<p>IMO having him take the PSAT for no reason at all was just a waste of his time. He didn’t think it was that difficult but let’s see if that’s just hubris.</p>
<p>I can understand trying to motivate low income kids but my son goes to a private school where there are very few low income kids and college acceptance is required for high school graduation. They had already required the kids to take the PSAT in 10th and 11th grade. Adding 9th graders to the mix is silly for this particular school. I don’t know what a 9th grader who has taken 1 quarter of Algebra could possibly get from taking a test where they have only learned 1/12 of the math tested.</p>
<p>Swimgirl also took the PSAT this past week. She felt that the math was relatively easy and that the reading sections were more difficult. Her first set of grades are in and she has done well. In addition high school swimming is underway and she is performing up to expectations. We won’t know how fast she will be this season until she is rested for state.</p>
<p>At our school all freshman take the PSAT. I think this benefit the student for 2 reasons. One is that the student become familiar with the test conditions. The other benefit is the score report which shows how the student did relative to other students and also shows their strengths and weaknesses. By using the score report a student can customize how they prepare for the PSAT/SAT. DS was a NMF and used the previous years PSAT score reports to guide his test preparation.</p>
<p>Proudpatriot: I’m not really arguing in favor of it. Like I said, I might even have had him skip it if I’d remembered it was coming. Just trying to look on the bright side and see what the advantages might be, not measuring them against the disadvantages. </p>
<p>Honestly, at this point for us, the big advantage was that his teachers didn’t give homework the night before or the night after. Since he’s swamped with make up work that was a nice break, but clearly I’m not going to propose that entire school districts make decisions about the PSAT based on CuriousKid’s make up work.</p>
<p>Wow! This is interesting to see the different points of view from across the country. My DS is an only child so I don’t have much first hand information on the college application process. He is just trying to sign up for classes that he is interested in and balancing school with a pre-professional ballet schedule after school. This year he is taking: PAP Geometry, PAP English, PAP World Geography, PAP Biology, Japanese, Debate, Technology and Choir. He goes to a huge high school that has over 1200 students per grade so he has a lot of choice in his classes. </p>
<p>He has no idea what he will major in while he is in college or even where he will go. This should be an interesting four years. Wish us luck!</p>
<p>Is PAP pre-AP? I’ve seen it used that way before, but we don’t label classes that way here. I agree that it’s interesting to see how different schools do different things. </p>
<p>We finally found a Dr. for Curiouskid who had a plan. After some steroids and antibiotics he’s feeling great, and back at school every day. Unfortunately, it happened late enough in the quarter that he needed to take incompletes in 3 subjects, so he’s working through those. </p>
<p>Luckily he’s in the break between fall (football, which ended yesterday) and winter(wrestling, a new sport for him which starts this coming Thursday) sports so he has a little time this week to finish things up. I thought he’d have all weekend since there are no games or matches, but he decided to sign up to referee youth soccer both Saturday and Sunday. Our TV’s been broken for a while, and he’s very motivated to earn money to replace it.</p>