@MichiganGeorgia you’re right I read the very fine print and it said the range was plus or minus 40 points. The still puts him a touch out side the range. But that practice SAT was a wake up call.
@3scoutsmom, how does your D18 rank the Kahn’s SAT prep for the proctored SAT he took? What part of the Kahn’s prep is best, CR, math, etc.?
@vanurseprac I don’t know but will ask him tonight.
I’m new to the thread as well. Our youngest is homeschooled and technically in tenth grade, but we’ve decided she will graduate next year. She has a short list of colleges that fit her two very specific requirements (high-level Arabic and international relations w security studies focus) and our requirement of affordability! She needs to chase merit money, that’s for sure.
D is scheduled to take the SAT Bio subject test on Saturday. It looks like we will receive a generous amount of snow. I hate not knowing if the testing center, the local high school, will be open or not.
My DS wants to study neuroscience. He got a 1500 on the psat (224 si) so hoping he can find some merit schollie money. If any of you have had any kids study neuroscience, I’d love to hear at what schools and whether the experiences have been good or bad.
PNW parent here. Third and last kid is a HS junior. All 3 of our kids prefer(red) the ACT over the SAT, and score much higher percentile in rankings. Junior daughter is not even messing with the New SAT. We are completely fed up with college board and how long they took to get PSAT scores back- too late to decide whether to focus on the old SAT or new SAT. ACT or bust for us! (Sorry I don’t have all the acronyms down! )
@crazym0m - University of Rochester has a highly regarded neuroscience department. They also offer merit aid up to $20K (on a $60K bill), and can be generous with FA, depending your finances. Great school, but cold. Very cold.
We are forgoing the old and the new SAT and just taking the ACT. DS will take the April and June tests and if need be, he can always take the ACT or the SAT in the fall once for EA and twice for RD. The more time he gets in AP Lang, the better writer he becomes, the higher he scores. Math isn’t an issue.
@crazym0m Look at Pitt for a good Neuro program + available merit. We are in the same boat. Learned that many LACs have Neuro, and are a good option for learning how to “do science”. I discounted them at first, and focused on research unis. We are going to look at several LACs during the search, many have available merit as well.
For those loathing the CB, just check if your C may need to take SAT IIs.
@crazym0m, my DS '14 is a sophomore at Pitt in the Neuroscience program and he’s had a good experience so far, although he is just starting classes in his major. He was fortunate enough to receive a nice merit package. He’s been able to do some research since 2nd semester freshman year and has moved to a likely grad school attendee from a possible med school attendee although his course of study will hit all of the pre-med prerequisites.
@geogirl1 Thanks for the info - I’ll have him take a look. Thanks for the advice and good luck to your DS. My son had to practice the most for reading and writing sections too but it is definitely possible to make significant improvements. I highly recommend all the advice on Prepscholar blog - my DS never took the class and improved (a bunch) just from reading the blog and taking lots (and lots) of practice tests.
@2muchquan Will have a look at Pitt. Neuroscience field is a marathon journey (usually need phd) so he just needs to find a solid place that does research, has decent reputation with grad programs and has him prepared. DS should be able to get some merit between his PSAT score and SAT score. Here’s hoping!
@Dave_N Thanks - will def look at Pitt. Best of luck to your DS!
S’s counselor just sent a funny, but admonishing email to the junior class telling them that she isn’t going to be able to write LORs for them if they don’t attend their scheduled counseling sessions with her! She cc’d the parents on the email. Now I will have to check to see if S is one of the “few” students that attends the sessions!
I’ve seen on CC comments re: skipping AP tests since many colleges do not give credit for certain APs. I checked at my daughter’s school, where we get a 1.0 bump for APs. If you don’t take the AP test, you only get a .5 bump.
Just throwing that out there. Not sure if it’s a common process. You may want to check. I was considering having my daughter skip some of the the tests and re-take the material (core stuff) in college so she will not be overwhelmed as a frosh. Guess not.
My D did not just take AP classes for the AP exam and possible credit, but because they were higher level classes and she wanted to be challenged. But for her course of study she was able to knock out several prerequisites and elective classes, 19 credits total. So it worked well for her.
DS14 took AP exams for all his AP courses. He ended up not using many of them for college credits. He was not able to waive many courses due to college policy. So for DD17, I will need to evaluate if it’s truly necessary for her to take the exam for every AP class she is taking.
^^ Yes, we are in the same boat. It’s nice if you can use them to maybe get out of some electives or language requirements, but for core STEM classes for instance, I wouldn’t mind my daughter doing a re-take in college. YMMV.
And @mommdc, I certainly am not suggesting not to take APs, my daughter likes a challenge as well, and is taking all the APs she can w/o thought towards college. It’s the class that provides the challenge, though, not so much the AP exam.
We too don’t have a choice as there is no Honors option at our small school. It’s either AP class or Standard class. The $90+ exam fee per test is what bothers me most.
Our dd is going to take an approach that none of her older siblings did. She is going to take CLEP exams. All of the high merit $$ schools she has been investigating offer CLEP credit. She just finished cal AB. She is going to major in foreign languages and has not need for BC. So, instead of waiting until May to take AB, she is going to take the CLEP exam in the next couple of weeks.
I can see skipping AP tests senior year, since by May you will already know the college you will attend and their AP credit policies. But, there’s a wide variety of credit policies at the colleges he’s thinking of, ranging from lots of credit at most UCs to no credit at some reach schools.
We don’t get any different grades based on taking or not taking the AP test. For low-income students, there’s a financial incentive because it’s $20 to register for the test, and they get a $15 refund if they take the test. DS takes AP classes for the challenge and because the only alternative is really low-level classes; there’s no honors option in the middle.
It looks like 4 AP tests for him this year plus his multivariable final the first week of AP tests. Spanish will probably be the hardest AP for him.
Edit: Are CLEP tests a regional thing? I haven’t heard anyone mention them here in CA. I guess that probably means the UC/CSU systems don’t take them for credit.