D21’s school doesn’t do mid-terms, thank goodness! Crazy time of year for D’s activity (competitive cheer) so I feel like I’ve spent the majority of the last month driving, doing laundry and wrapping presents! The tree only has 1 box of ornaments on it! S17 is home tomorrow night, then looking forward to a somewhat relaxing week off (at least for D21; I’ll still be working but at least the practice schedule eases up for the week!). Happy Holidays all!
DD21 got PreAct back today with composite 33. For science and reading she did not miss a question. Next up is psat10 and then SAT Math II in the spring.
@InfiniteWaves, it must be great to see the growth in your S21! I paid D19’s deposit this week too, but D21 is definitely not inspired–she is allergic to college talk. Also, when D19 got her acceptance, D21 wouldn’t celebrate at all because she is too bummed about “losing” her sister 
.
@burghdad, congrats to your D! Perfect science and reading–wow!
@momtogkc, D21 is also having a hard time because it looks like the highest she could get in AP Euro for the second quarter is a B+. She’s never had a B either, and history is her favorite subject, so she’s upset! I wish she didn’t stress so much, but overall I think the challenge is good for her because it’s forcing her to be disciplined and figure out different ways to study.
It does mystify me that our school teaches AP Euro sophomore year, since it’s definitely the hardest social studies AP. Then again, if D21 applies her newly learned study skills to APUSH next year, I think she’ll do really well, and her confidence will build.
Our school doesn’t give PreAct at all, and only does voluntary PSAT junior year. I won’t encourage D21 to take it because she’s not going to get National Merit due to weakness in math and not being a great standardized test taker in general.
Has Anybody used the online PrepScholar course before? my D21 wants to do an online SAT prep class as her schedule is so crazy. We don’t have midterms until end of January, we start after Labor Day in NY.
Hi, haven’t been here since early in the school year but starting to think more about college now that PSATs are in! S21 didn’t prep since we wanted to see what his baseline was. Did well – 1300. Not surprising, better on math – 700 – than English – 600. Loves math and wants to major in that but hates reading so those are kind of what I expected. I’ll have him do the Kahn Academy over the summer. It would be great if he could get in striking distance of National Merit since we’ll be looking for merit aid if he doesn’t want to go in-state public (VA). However, given the “hates reading” part I’m not optimistic that he’ll make huge gains in English.
Other than that, things are going really well for him after a challenging freshman year when we was diagnosed with ADHD-combined. For the first time ever, he has straight-As. It’s so great to see him seeing that he can do so well. Now our main issue is coming up with a balanced schedule for next year – at one point he was talking about 5 AP classes next year but I think that’s too much. He has 1 AP and 1 DE class this year and could handle 1-2 more max IMO.
Also starting to think about the summer. D21’s job for the winter break is to get in his application to a pre-college program and summer job (he’s planning to work at the same camp where he’s volunteered for the last 3 summers).
@AndreaLynn My older daughter did Khan Academy and got a SAT prep book from Amazon and did timed tests at home. She had an extremely tight schedule. If your child is self-motivated, this approach can work well. If she does better with some external structure, then a course might be a good idea.
Here exams are done, D17 is home from college, and we are enjoying a bit of down time! The fall semester was pretty intense academically. Not surprisingly, AP courses were the most time consuming. Happy Holidays to all!
Thank you.
Merry Christmas to all. D is still upstairs sleeping. 1st semester of 10th grade is in the books. D’s romance continues to perkolate. They exchanged gift yesterday. She is no longer in counseling. Her anxiety is well controlled (think the romance is helping that) We had our out of town, huge Christmas dinner early, as hard to pin down with all the grown grandchildren can get together. So today is really low key for us. Want to see Mary Queen of Scots today. Tomorrow is my parent’s 53 wedding anniversary! Enjoy your families!
Hello! This is my first time posting…mom of three teen boys (younger two are twins! in 8th grade). My eldest is S21…he finished 9th grade with a weighted 3.97 GPA…Only AP class he had was World Human Geo (got a 3 on the test) and the rest were all PreAp…he’s also in Marching Band. Our school district doesn’t release class rank until Jan of Sophmore year…we’ll find out Jan 11th. He finished this past semester with 3 B’s and 1 A (we do accelerated block schedules foe high school…only 4 classes a term!). He’s not very happy with himself and knows he’s going to have to really apply himself in the spring term to bring up his GPA to clinch himself top 10%. His only AP class next term will be AP World History…the other three will be PreAp Chem, Pre AP Algebra II and Band.
Here’s our issue: he is NOT a good test taker…especially standardized tests. The highest PSAT score he’s gotten so far is 1080 (he’s taken in in 8th, 9th and 10th). He’s starting private SAT/ACT prep tutoring in January and will take the SAT in October. I’m trying not to freak him out more but I don’t have high hopes for him scoring high on the SAT (and I’m perfectly ok with that!). So far Texas A&M is his #1 choice…and he hasn’t now thought much further than that lol, other than he wants to stay in state. No idea of what he want to major in either, other than it won’t be Math or Science related.
Can anyone else relate to all this lol
@Momof3B welcome. I am sure many on this site relate. You raise lots of issues many of our kids deal with. My d21 has no idea where she want to go or what she wants to study. I learned from d18 last year this college finding journey will take lots of twists and turns, and there are lots of highs and lows along the way. It sounds like you son is a good student and nice young man. He will find his way. Take deep breath, relax and enjoy the ride.
Hoping you both have a happy new year.
@Momof3B I think not knowing what they want to do or where to go at this age is more normal than the few who know what they want to do. D21 has been on a Computer Science kick for a few years now, but you never know what will happen. She is not great test taker either, she has some work to do especially on her English score. She only took PSAT once so far and got 1170, so that needs to come up as she has some high hope schools. She plans to do the Kahn online free course through College Board and take PSAT/SAT again.
Can she take PSAT and SAT both in October? Would that be overkill?
Also, anybody know how to convert numeric averages to 4.0 scale? Emily’s GPA was 100.6 for 1st quarter, weighted. Is that a 4.0, sometimes I see 4.1 for instance. Just curious as she is looking at average SAT scores and grades needed for schools she is interested in and she see’s 4.1 a lot.
She only has 1 AP this year, World 2, so she takes the exam in May. She is just starting to talk with teachers and guidance about next years courses but is planning 4 AP’s I think. She wants to be in top 10% of her class so she needs more AP’s to be competitive. She has a big class (little over 500) and most are high achieving students.
@VikkiG5 I am playing catch up as I just found this board recently. 5 AP’s is a lot I think as a Junior, so much other stress Junior year. I think Em is doing 4, I don’t know if that is much better, what’s one more…lol.
@Momof3B and @Andrealynn Have your kids tried the ACT? My older daughter’s performance on the SAT was not consistent with her grades. She tried the ACT and it was a much better test for her!
@mamaedefamilia not yet, she has only taken PSAT one time. I will have her look into ACT. Thank you.
ACT is much easier. I’ve tutored both tests for students and the questions are more straight forward. It’s quick, like posters say above, so you have to move quickly. This will be a controversial statement but I think the SAT shows better to colleges if you can score high. We had something like 25 kids in my S19’s class get a 36. I know some of these kids and they don’t even have the best grades. No 1600s to speak of. Many of the top five percent took both and reported their 36s and their SATs which ranged from 1520-1580. S19 got a 1540 first try after studying and didn’t want to bother with the ACT so he didn’t take it but sometimes I wish I would have just thrown him into one to see if he could get a 36.
This all being said, schools swear that they don’t care which test you take so I always suggest to pretest both and just see which test the student prefers and focus on that one.
@homerdog Thank you. If my D takes ACT do they automatically report the scores or does she have to request they send them? For instance if she takes them and doesn’t do great, will a school know she took them and therefore assume she didn’t do well?
@andreaLynn If she doesn’t fill in the sheet at the test saying she wants to send scores, then the scores do not send. I would never send a student into the test, though, without prepping. She can take a practice test just timed at home.
You send scores after you’ve seen them and decided which scores to send.
@homerdog Thank you. I will have her look into a practice ACT. She purposely went into PSAT cold, she didn’t study at all, wanted her true baseline.
@mamaedefamilia No, not yet. He’s only taken the PSAT. I was thinking about having him try a practice ACT this summer, I am keen to see which test he does better at.
It may not be the best to choose a test that your kids are “better” at and you may very well find they get about the same score on both of them. So…you also need to ask your kids which test do they LIKE better. Some kids don’t want to learn to go faster for the ACT or some kids think the SAT reading is just not something that will be easy to improve on. They will probably have an opinion on which test they think they have the best chance of doing their best on. The ACT requires learning a lot of tricks like not reading the passages in the science section and going right to the questions. Or jumping around in the reading section to do the passages that the student thinks they can ace first. The SAT isn’t about tricks. It can just take a lot of practice to get used to the wording of the questions and, if a student isn’t already a very strong reader, it’s hard to improve on the reading section. The SAT reading is more original texts for non-fiction and more classic literature on the fiction side than the ACT so, if a student has not been reading these type of texts for a few years, it can be very challenging.