One would think that a company that basically holds a monopoly over college selection, would get their act together. College Board has to be raking in millions of dollars and they can’t score tests in a timely fashion? Are they unwilling to hire the necessary staff? There needs to be an overhaul of this entire testing machine.
@jmek15 Your very good post reminded me of a movie I finally watch recently: “Dark Swan”, where there were 2 dancers, one ‘perfect’ and one ‘passionate’, at odds (seemingly) with each other. I’m still trying to figure out what the heck was going on in that movie!
Question: My daughter was ‘inducted’ to Nat’l Honor Society this week in a ceremony at the HS. It seems like the bar is set somewhat low to be inducted(?)…with our chapter it’s a 3.0 GPA along with some number of service hours, and a few more things. Is this normal for all chapters? Or do they have their own criteria. My D thinks this is kind of a ‘worthless’ honor, because you don’t really have to ‘do’ anything once you are a member. At least our chapter doesn’t seem to be very active…I’d be curious if that is the norm?
I just looked at my son’s CB scores on the redesigned website (my computer still send me to the old CB website). The most recent score is shown big and bold at the top of the page. In S’s case, it is his PSAT score. I’d be happy if his PSAT score was his SAT score!
@Agentninetynine – Re: deadline extended for June exam. I had not realized that it had been extended. I had it in my head that I could move my son’s May reservation to June if he decided not to go tomorrow (save myself a few dollars), so I have held off registering for June’s Physics until I found out what he plans to do about USH tomorrow.
Our head of guidance mentioned that he has more Subject Test takers signed up for tomorrow than SAT takers and he has never seen that. CB never intended to release March scores until after the May exam, and I don’t know if an actual release date has been published. Really shooting themselves in the foot this year with the exam format change and massively delayed release of scores.
Oops—others have responded while I have been typing. This is moving too quickly for me today!
I agree that prom in the middle of AP exams is just lousy timing. We noticed several boys picking up their tuxes yesterday when in to reserve son’s for next Friday. It has been raining here for six days…maybe seven. Have not seen the sun in a week and it is raw & cold. I feel so bad for those who have prom tonight.
@payn4ward – thank you! I am going to click through those links. I had seen the book with the new cover on the CB site, but didn’t know if it was an updated book or just the 2006 book with a new cover. I can’t locate an updated one on Amazon, leading me to think it is just a new cover. Will drill down further and THANK YOU for your continued assistance.
@mtrosemom – I had not realized there were new and old sites, so I logged in. When I click My SAT, it directs me to his SAT & Subject Test scores, but no sight of PSAT score. The new site shows everything: 10th & 11th grade PSAT, 9th & 10th grade subject tests, and SATs identified as Old SAT. I wonder why they continue to maintain both sites, accessed via the same log in?
Not important, but TY for pointing that out.
Oops, “Black Swan” was the movie 
Darn! Missed my edit window.
Congrats to your daughter @2muchquan! I’m not sure what the cutoff is at son’s school but NHS is fairly inclusive. NHS members have to tutor something like 10 hours a year.
@CT1417 : The deadline extension was mentioned in an email from the school’s college counselor. Thanks @payn4ward for the book suggestions. USH is one of S’s strongest subjects but it can’t hurt to study for all of the idiosyncrasies the SAT subject test may present.
I just wanted to mention that the AO who led my group on Faux Application Night said that her college uses a rubric based on grades of core subjects only. Classes such as p.e., theology (if applicable) and all electives aren’t used.
A funny aside from that night… parents were asking how an application with a high gpa and lower test scores would be considered. A friend of son’s is a really smart kid who tests wickedly high but just isn’t all that engaged in school so he has a lower gpa. I asked on behalf of his parents how an app was considered based on a lower gpa but high test scores. You should’ve seen the reaction from parents and the AO. I got some sympathetic smiles but a ton of condescending glares! Judgy much?
My D thought the Calc AB exam went about as badly as she expected it to. She is cautiously hoping for a 4, but a 5 seems unlikely.
Tomorrow is her APUSH exam which she is not at all worried about. History, especially American History, is her forte. She actually competes in national competitions in the subject, so she is very comfortable with the material. I don’t know where this girl came from since I was definitely not a history person in school!
@2muchquan Our NHS is similar, with a higher GPA requirement (I think 3.5 UW GPA?), but also service hours, etc. I would guess about 20% of the class got inducted? Next year DS will have to complete a set amount of tutoring hours, and participate in a few events.
He was nominated for NHS president, but wasn’t interested. He didn’t think he had a chance against the “popular” kids, but I was like…
“DUDE! This is NHS, you and your buddy’s ARE the popular kids”.
At which point he went into full ignore Dad mode. After giving me his standard look of disdain, he put his headset back on and re-joined his large video conference chat (8 kids? what software is he using?) to study for the physics test. At least he didn’t throw anything at me this time…
@2muchquan – I read your question about NHS and forgot to respond. Our HS’s threshold needs to be increased, IMHO, because GPAs have crept up over the years but NHS still uses 3.7 as floor. They do have fairly specific volunteer & leadership requirements, both inside and outside of school, and an app & LOR are required, but the # of students in NHS seems to increase each year. If nothing else, it is something to fill in on the National Honors or Awards section of the Common App. I haven’t looked at the CA in nearly three years but I recall thinking that it was nice to have something to plug in that section when Intel winner was not an option! Nat’l Merit Commended also worked in that section. Congrats to your D.
@Agentninetynine – no word from our GC on registering for exams ever. They do send out notices about PSAT & AP exam registrations since those registrations are completed in person at school, but nothing about standardized exams, even though they are administered in our school.
Someone had asked a while back, and perhaps the answer was already provided, but the question was what is the point of sending SAT scores now while taking subject test. To save yourself $12 or whatever the fee CB charges. If student is in the running for NMSF, an official CB SAT score report is required. Sending the May or June free report that accompanies the Subject Test taking will push out all testing history, including whatever SAT score serves as the qualifying score for NMSF.
Welcome all former lurkers!
D decided not to take USH subject test tomorrow. She is still currently planning to take Chem and Math II, but she realized she really needs to brush up on some topics since precalc was last year and she only has tonight to do it. To reassure her, I looked back on her list and found that only 3 schools require subject tests (2 needed) and even though they have EA, initial decisions aren’t announced until December or January. So I told her to do what she can tonight and take the tests tomorrow. If she doesn’t feel good about the score cancel them. Then when SAT scores come out next week, if she is happy with her score, she’s done with that and can take the SAT II again in June, and if she want to retake the SAT I in June instead, the October date won’t be too late to take the SAT II. So that’s the current plan. Oh, I bought her the separate review books for Chem and Math II so she will go through those tonight. Kaplan for Math II and Sterling Test Prep for chem (both chosen based on Amazon reviews).
Thanks for the tip re: NMSC. I will have D send a free score report with the next exam she completes.
D has APUSH exam today and will be relieved when that’s over. Over the next two weeks she has AP English and AP Spanish, neither of which she needs to or plans to do much review for. So almost in the home stretch.
National Honor Society and Honor Roll - D’s school does not do an honor roll. At the end of the year, they have an awards ceremony for the top 10% and give out other awards and recognize scholarship recipients, etc. (excludes seniors as they get a separate awards night). It was last night, but D wanted to study instead of attending. She’ll just get her awards at school today. National Honor Society in D’s school means very little. She was in NJHS through sophomore year and decided not to apply for NHS and I told her it was fine. The requirements are very low at 3.5 GPA (weighted at her school) and 12 hours per grading period of volunteer work. A 3.5 at D’s school would put a student in the bottom half of the class at least, but probably lower. She gets her volunteer work in without NHS and without the time constraints placed by NHS.
D got accepted to her second summer program. She applied to a third, but has not heard back despite sending a follow-up email. We’re going to go ahead and finalize the rest of her summer plans without it. It was duplicative of the one she got accepted to yesterday anyway. D said she thought the program that she didn’t hear back from was “sketchy” from the get-go (odd application process). Perhaps a little, but it was at a reputable school. I guess they are just terribly disorganized.
Our NHS is a joke. The kids regularly have other people sign off on fake service hours. They don’t really do anything and three kids who are known cheaters were inducted last year (they were caught and called out in front of the entire AP World class). So getting D to even remotely be excited about NHS is like pulling teeth.
She got a “warning” email from NHS about how she would be kicked out if she didn’t show up to at least one more meeting.
That was me @CT1417, thanks for explaining. DS will take the SAT tomorrow so alas, no free scores to send. The college guidance counselor sends out at least one email a week, sometimes more. Listed are all the test dates, colleges that are visiting campus or will host a night at a local hotel, and other tidbits.
The school also offers SAT and ACT prep classes and an essay writing class, for a fee. In general they do a good job, but this is a private prep school. The gc or her assistant use the English classes to explain Naviance and walk the students through the process. But individual conferences don’t happen unless the kid or parents initiate it.
D’s school does do individual conferences. I’m not sure how they manage it as the school is huge, but they do. D did a no-show for hers thinking that since I’m kind of coaching her along already, it was a waste of time.
Re: NHS, 3.5 or 3.7 GPA makes a lot more sense than 3.0, IMO. We have a pretty large, diverse (both s-e and ethnically), school, but still. Like you, @Gator88NE, I’d say 20% of the class is included. Maybe they will have some activities to complete senior year as part of the organization. You could see who the ‘popular’ ones were as they were announced and walked across the state, and yeah, my D did not exactly elicit a huge response. I don’t the an NHS office is in her future.
@Agentninetynine CC has a term I’ve seen for kids with a low GPA, but high test scores. It’s not too flattering, so I won’t repeat. 
This could not be more true for me.
My oldest, S06, is in his second attempt at college. He will be taking Comp I over the summer at the local CC and has asked his sister D17 for help. She is completing AP Lang now and will be disappointed at anything other than a 5. This will be his fourth attempt at Comp I.
So please excuse me if you see me post a humble brag or two, having the youngest being a high achiever is as much a surprise as it is a delight for me.
National Honor Society for DD 15 was selective. If you met minimum criteria then you were invited to apply. If accepted, then you were required to participate in meetings and do service a minimum amount of service (4 hours a month?).
DS 17’s school has a 3.15 gpa requirement for NHS, and they say they consider leadership, service, etc. before the invitation is sent (but I’m skeptical). As far as I can tell, they do not require ongoing service to remain a member in good standing.
DD’s school ranked by percentage. DS’s school does not weight their GPA or assign a class rank. They assign a strength of curriculum rating of between 1 to 10, with 1 = Standard College Prep, and 10 = Most Demanding Curriculum available and give that to colleges. The rating is based on the number of Level II, Level I, Honors, and AP courses taken over a four year period.
@MotherOfDragons - Hoping your daughter’s morning improved! My DD had a similar panicky morning on Monday (AP Chem). She had forgotten her photo ID and had to drive home to get it, and then back to school. The panicky-rushed feeling is not a good frame of mind for an important test! She thinks she that she did fine on the test, though; hopefully the same will be true for your daughter.
Would that be lazy @2muchquan? To clarify, he probably has somewhere around a 3.3 or 3.4 uw. But for him that’s low. He’s a fabulous kid who just couldn’t give 2 figs about academics. He got a fairly high PSAT score with no prep.
@WhereIsMyKindle yay for power!
@HiToWaMom yeah, bummer for the Lit and Physics kids for sure. S was NOT happy about it being at the HS so is glad it has moved. Given that this is the one he has a much better chance of actually scoring on, I am too!
@Agentninetynine I’m pretty tough so it doesn’t bother me but I would be very careful to recommend this site to folks and that is sad. That said, it has never, ever, been anything but supportive on this thread. I do remember when a B was above average. When did above average become just meeting standard and meeting standard not good enough? Ick on the judgy parents for the high test/low gpa question. They are just mad because their kid doesn’t test as high and heaven forbid it could be considered/rated as highly with a child that has a high gpa and average test scores. I swear, many parents act like they are still in a HS clique!
@2muchquan it varies by chapter and each chapter sets their rules. Ours is a 3.7 to get in and a 3.5 to stay in. I am fairly sure the numbers were a little lower at SD’s HS but similar. Our school did recently add some “summa” type deans list thingy that apparently some kids got last semester. I have no clue what it meant or how you got it since clearly neither of my boys received it. LOL! I suspect it is similar to the MS honor roll, which you could get for a 3.7 in a semester but you still might not make HS unless you maintained it. Who knows, my S19 made MS Jr Honor Society but didn’t bother to turn in the paperwork and at the rate he is not turning in assignments it may be a moot point for HS.