Not school sponsored in fact the school usually says to wait until spring of junior year. However they did just have a meeting and told the parents that depending on the math track your kid is on it might be best to take the old SAT because the new SAT will have trig on it and if you are not a math person then this might end up being a problem. I already knew that and since he isn’t a math person I wanted him to take the old SAT. I also had him take the ACT to see if it was a better fit. Since both of his scores SAT/ACT were about the same I am having him study the math part of the ACT and he will take both again. He currently has a 30 composite on the ACT I want him to get at least a 32 because that is usually a merit scholarship starting point. I think a 32 is doable because the math part was what brought his score down. He is also going to be busy with theater/music this next year so it is best to get it out of the way if possible.
My S hasn’t done any testing yet. He’s been gone all summer and is in for homework as soon as he gets home. Summer reading and a summer physics homework that was just assigned. That last two weeks before school are going to be so much fun for him. 8-|
I feel like this was discussed already, but I can’t locate the post.
Does anyone know if the only PSAT practice exam to be released is the one available on the CB website:
https://s3.amazonaws.com/KA-share/sat/PSAT_5KPT06_Practice.pdf
I see that there are four practice exams for the new SAT, but can only find one PSAT. Am wondering if this is the same exam that will be distributed to the students when they register for the PSAT this fall.
I have not been able to locate the bubble/grid-in for recording answers. Since the format of this exam has changed, the old PSAT bubble sheets can’t be used.
Thanks for any info!
@CT1417, I also only found the one new PSAT practice test. What I read on the college board website was something to the effect of “use the Khan Academy study mosules for the new SAT and that will be the best way to study for the new PSAT”. So that is what S is doing. He took the new PSAT test once. I will probably have him take it again in September to see if he actually “learned” anything from the Khan Academy study modules. If you find any more PSAT study tests, please let us know!
Hello Parents of the class of 2017! Just wanted to point you to this post about the new raw score to scaled score being available for the new practice PSAT test and SAT tests, it doesn’t have many views yet and I didn’t want you to miss it.
So the state of CT just announced that all schools will be administering the new SAT in school in lieu of the normal standardized testing. While I do not think this is a bad idea in general, I do think this is the absolute worst year to implement this change.
Any student who had hoped to finish his standardized testing before the new exam format was rolled out will now be forced to study for this new SAT in a way he would never have studied for CT’s state exams. Only relevant for colleges that require reporting all testing history, but really, the class of 2017 does not need another change. Our school still has not figured out how they will administer the PSAT during the school day as required by CB this year.
Our school system just started that with the ACT. It missed my D15’s year , which was good because she was pretty much one and done with the SAT. She isn’t an ACT kid and didn’t need to study for another test. S17 will have to study for it even though he is studying for the new PSAT and by default, the new SAT.
How are things going aside from the PSAT/SAT/ACT? (I’m getting burned out just thinking about it; imagine how the kids feel!) When does school start for your kids? Ours starts Aug. 26, and he gets his class schedule Aug. 18.
We are leaving for 10 days of vacation in Alaska tomorrow! I haven’t packed at all yet…
S finished his geology class at the local UC last week. He enjoyed it and got a good grade. I was a geophysics major for about 1.5 years of college, so it was fun to hear about him learning the same geology plus a few things that are new in the past 30 years.
He’s doing research in an astrophysics lab at the UC and having a fun time. Some things are frustrating–and working through that is good for him. He’s programmed data collection and analysis stuff, got certified to use the machine shop, built a few things, and ordered some lasers, cameras, etc. He says there are two papers submitted that have his name on the (long) author list. He’ll have to figure out how many hours he can manage to spend at the lab in the fall.
He did get off the waitlist and into his fall math class, so he’ll be taking Discrete Math at the community college two evenings a week. I’ll need to drive him, since he can’t take the license test until late October and even then can’t drive after dark alone. And, we’ve confirmed with the GC that he’s currently signed up for the fall classes he wants at the HS; hopefully that won’t change.
No real change with the cancellation of the senior year FIRST robotics team in his engineering program, except that they’ve agreed to allow kids to optionally have 2 instead of 3 full-year classes for the alternate capstone project. Kids and parents are still sad, but maybe only sad rather than mad now. 
We haven’t done any college trips other than the campuses S has visited for other events. DH seems oddly opposed to “wasting” vacation time on that, since “back in the day” we didn’t visit colleges before deciding where to go. So, I think visits will have to wait until S puts pressure on dad. Pretty much everything likely to be on his list is in California, so these won’t be huge trips.
School starts for us on Sept. 2. D has a partial schedule. NOT happy with the change in teacher for the leadership class. He’s pompous and imperative and no one cared for him as a digital arts teacher. D is hoping to figure out a way to do her senior internship in the fall instead of spring so she can skip the class. If not, she’ll need to skip Japanese and would rather not do that.
She is very busy since she’s decided to graduate this spring. Right now she’s taking two online classes, African American History and AA Literature. She’s at it most of the day, and rounds out her work with ACT prep and scholarship searching an applying. She has everything in a planner or on a spreadsheet-man, is this one organized kid.
Early this summer she did a 1 credit college class up at WWU and made some good friends, enjoyed the class in teaching multicultural literature. Then she came home and produced a series of workshops for kids to get them excited about education. The turnout wasn’t that great, but she had some amazing guest speakers and there was a lot of networking between them on ways to help kids. Then she went to Florida for the National Urbane League Youth Summit, found some new things to sign up for and found a coding class to take online. Other than her worst asthma attack in 2 years, she had a great time.
We didn’t actually go on vacation this year. When could we?? In any case, it will be interesting to see what this year brings. It sure won’t be what we thought it would!
School starts for Spykid on Sept. 2, but he’s going to miss the first day to compete at state fair. School almost always begins here after Labor Day, but because it falls late this year, school seems to be coming way too fast. We’re just trying to enjoy the last few sweet weeks of summer vacation.
Have any of you started touring colleges?
We have started touring colleges for S17. He saw many schools with his sister, and pretty much eliminated small LACs (her favorites). He wants a tech school, and right now he prefers the western US. He wasn’t crazy about the east or south, but that may change too. We stopped at an Oregon school during summer vacation to Crater Lake. It was tiny and underwhelming to me, but very techy and the even the nursing student tour guide spoke his language! We are scheduled to tour a couple of California schools over winter break. He loved Stanford, but that would be a stretch financially, even with their generous “needs-based” aid. Plus he already blew the GPA by getting a couple of B’s in Spanish and English! :)) We may visit some Washington schools over spring break. Depending on his PSAT score we may visit Arizona because they are very generous to NMFs. It’s fun to see a different subset of schools and compare them to what his sister wanted.
mtrosemon,
perhaps you should consider Cal. Berkeley is a great college town, and is a great school. also, research Cal poly at San louis Obispo. A great school with a great educational philosophy. “Learn by doing” The town is very nice, too…The campus is a great setting, but not great looking buildings. That might be the only drawback. Very smart kids, who seem very happy to be there…
Good news-the pompous digital arts teacher has moved on and will not be teaching leadership. We started touring colleges after freshman year-since D wanted to go to a part of the country none of us had seen, we made it a vacation, brought a friend of D’s with us, and she found 2 of her top choices along the way. She took another tour with a group last spring, and found most of the others on her list. The last 2 are in-state U’s where she’s stayed for various programs. We’re pretty much done looking. This is a good thing since D is leap-frogging into her senior year.
BigPapio, excellent suggestions. Cal Poly is one of the schools we will visit and I think should be top on his list. He knows he wants to go into comp sci/programming, so he will fit the Cal Poly mold. I think the city of Berkeley may not be the right setting for S. He does not want a humongous school and might get lost in the environment. Plus, as an out-of-stater, Berkeley will be too pricey for us. The school environment will mean less to S than the type of student and he will likely be playing games during his “free” time and will never see where he is. 8-|
Wow, Sseamom - you are on the ball!
@mtrosemom - I know the Oregon school of which you speak. The spy kids know several people who attend there and they seem to like it. Too small for DD & DS but to each their own. I was going to suggest CalPoly but you are way ahead of me there. CalPoly is on our list of must-tour colleges.
My S only looked at one college this summer and it was because he was staying the dorms for a few weeks. We’ll look at our state flagships but he really isn’t sure what he wants to study or if he even wants to start college or give dancing a shot.
He started school yesterday and had teachers that assigned homework in three different classes before school even started. Welcome back to reality…
Jr. year started for my S last week. He is taking the hardest load of my three kids. Second night of school he was up til 1:00 am doing homework. This will be a long tough year. Also doing SAT prep. Taking practice tests weekly. Not easy these days for our kids…
I LOVED Cal Poly but neither of my kids are interested though some hope for my 2017 kid. Beautiful area and really neat engineering program.
CalPoly SLO is close to us, so I suspect DS will apply, even though their physics department is small for majors, I believe. Overall, CalPoly is great for their hands-on programs. Naviance says about 90-100 kids a year apply per year from our HS (~20%), and many of them are probably for engineering. The co-inventor of the CubeSat standard is an Aerospace Engineering professor at CalPoly; we had him speak at our local amateur astronomy club meeting. We should get up there and tour sometime; SLO is a nice little town.
My Class of 2021 daughter went through a phase where she wanted to be an architect or a civil engineer. CalPoly has top-notch (and very competitive) programs in both. But, she currently wants to be the next John Green or Rick Riordan.
… oh and, are you new here @dcplanner? Welcome!