@eh1234 A separate document really helps. It also helps check the character count as they are very tight and easy to go over. I recommend action oriented statements versus just factual lists.
i.e.
Activity Type: Music Instrumental (Band Stuff)
V1.
Trombonist: Jazz, Classical, Marching Band, XXHS
Active member in all performing bands at school with a constant upward movement in all bands.
V2.
Trombonist, School Bands and Community Ensembles
Perform in 4 school bands annually, including jazz, classical, marching, pep. Band Council Member. Community ensembles, alternative & big band.
Well, after weeks of studying for ACTs, and two tests later, Dās scores came up, but not by much. She is still at the low end of the āmiddle 50%ā for her favorite schools. Itās a bummer and she feels like she wasted her summer (school starts next week). I am simultaneously upset for her and with her. I know itās hard to spend all summer working on academics, but given the importance of college admissions, Iām annoyed that she didnāt bring her āAā game to this effort. She did have some higher scores on practice tests, so I think itās just a let-down. At least now we know what she has to work with and hopefully it will inspire her to shine up her application essays.
Her super score gives her 25.5. Will that read as a 25 or 26?
I am utterly depressed about how early school starts here. (We are in the southeast, but I grew up in the northeast and rarely started before Labor Day).
@Acersaccharum she may have brought her A game. Some students are simply not good at standardized tests no matter the amount of prep, my S17 was much the same. Part of it was in his head, he was convinced he couldnāt do better (and like your D had some better practice tests) but part of it really was just the state of the union (and ADHD). Every little bit helps. It will round up to a 26. My S17 had a superscored 25 and got into 7/7. CC is not the ārealā world and nor are scores that are 30+ . A 26 is a solid score despite what folks on CC may make you think and middle 50 is an ok place to be for admissions.
Thanks all. Just venting a little here. Standardized tests have never been her strong suit, but Iām not sure that test-optional applications will show enough strength either. Of course we are also hoping for some merit, so we will see. Good news that superscoring rounds up!
@Acersaccharum I can sympathize. My daughter can test well, but crashed and burned with grades this past year. Iām also in the southeast and my girls start Sr. year Aug. 16. Itās hard to believe how quickly this summer has gone. I am still adjusting our last college tour and weāre down to the wire. I think 26 is very respectable and with so many colleges dropping these tests, sheāll find a good match. Hang in there.
I could only hope for that score with S19! He definitely has test anxiety as his SAT and ACT scores are alarmingly low and do not match at all with his school academics. Heās seeing a math tutor presently to help bump up his score but I realized recently itās his reading score that really needs help (he absolutely will not read for pleasure and for years Iāve told him this will come back to haunt him-and here we are!).
On a different note, growing up in MD, I never went back to school before Labor Day but so,time over the years it changed b/c my kids always went back a week or 10 days before Labor Day. However, last year our governor mandated that schools not reopen until after Labor Day, which makes for a very long summer when you have teens who are too young to work, too old for camp and just flat out bored! We canāt vacation in August b/c h.s. sports start up but that means my 13 y/o (who does still go to camp) has nothing to do for the month of August (most camps over by then here). So this August Iām sending her to visit MIL and her cousins for three weeks in California. Even my college student doesnāt go back until Labor Day but at least she is working right up until she leaves. And for working parents with young kids, starting after Labor Day has caused many to scramble for something to do with their kids b/c day camps are mostly over by mid-Aug. In fact, My college daughter was hired by my neighbor to babysit her kids for the last two weeks of Aug (D is ending her office job early to babysit as it actually pays more!).
Many states with resorts (Minn, Wis, and now Maryland) have LAWS that schools canāt start until after Sept 1/Labor Day because the resorts were losing their summer workers.
Other schools have made adjustments so that they can get 16-18 weeks of classes in before Christmas break. I know that many schools have shifted everything earlier in the year so they have more weeks of classes in before state testing or AP testing in May.
When our schools moved the start date to Aug 1 it was presumably to improve AP/IB and state testing results and decrease the summer ābrain drainā. I cannot find any evidence in our district reports that indicate the scores are going up. I really donāt think itās made any difference at all. I do think that it may have reduced the amount of summer homework, so thatās good. Interestingly, the 2 weeks they took from August were added back in as a Fall Break in September and a Winter Break in February. We have taken some nice vacations at those times, but I do think I would give them back to have a longer summer. Itās pretty hard on the students to have a week off only 6 weeks after starting the school year. They feel like they just got going and then have to re-group.
@Acersaccharum Donāt you wonder who makes these decisions without assessing the impact? Having said that, I would lose it if our schools started after Labor Day. That is crazy. There needs to be some coordination b/c of camps, summer jobs, and childcare coverage.
We are in MD and last year was the first year we started after Labor Day and I am not a fan. This year we decided to take our family vacation the last week of August before school stars, kids do not play any fall sports. Our trip is less expensive this year and hopefully less crowded with most schools back in session.
I still remember the year we were in Florida where the starting date insanity hit its breaking point: Start dates had been creeping earlier and earlier for years, mainly not for AP/IB reasons, but for state-mandated testing reasons. (Earlier start datesābetter scoresāmore money for schools that got good scores.) There was also this weird thing going on where a number of wealthy districts (school districts are bounded by county in Florida) would consistently place their start dates a week earlier than neighboring districts.
We lived in Orange County, which one year put its start date at 7 August, earlier than it had ever been. Next-door (and wealthier) Seminole County, thus, put its start date at 31 July.
They werenāt the only ones to set start dates that day, but it kicked off a backlash, and the legislature, under pressure from parents, mandated that school start dates could be no earlier than two weeks before Labor Day.
However, about a decade later (a couple years ago), under pressure from school boards (particularly the wealthy ones that had been playing earlier-start games back when we lived there), the legislature changed the law so that the earliest start date is 10 Augustā¦and guess when about two-thirds of Florida counties are starting school now?
@dfbdfb You nailed the reasoning: districts felt they could teach more content and it would raise scores on the state tests. Why no one thought of making the state tests later is beyond me. (Golly Iām so smart!)
We start before Labor Day so that kids can take first semester finals before break. Parents voted to change the calendar to this. Otherwise, kids had a two week break and then one week of class and finals. Break wasnāt really a break because they all felt like they should be studying.