Our HS allows anyone to take AP classes, and actively encourages it, even for students who probably shouldn’t. They like to tout how highly ranked the school is, and the rankings are heavily based on the number of AP tests taken. But as you would expect, the school doesn’t have a very high pass rate on them. Besides the kids who shouldn’t be in the classes not doing well on the exams, they probably aren’t fully covering everything, which hurts the better students. So I’m sure there are quite a few kids who get As in AP classes and 2s on the tests.
DS got a 3 on his AP World History…it was his only AP class this year. He’s taking AP Psych right now over the summer, we’ll see if he decides to take the AP exam for it next spring as he’ll have 3 other AP classes in 11th grade.
@rjm2018, I do not know if any SAT prep books will be on sale but worth seeing if any go on sale…Best of luck.
We have the math prep book discussed above, D21 hasn’t cracked it open yet. She can make time, just hasn’t chosen to. That’s the area we need to focus on. Her PSAT score was almost perfect on the Ela half. Math was good but not quite as high. She got her AP Sem score, got a 5, which has her thrilled and built some extra confidence for the coming year. Going to a college fair in two weeks that a few schools she’s interested in will be attending. That will likely motivate her to get studying
S21 has been taking practice ACTs and preparing for the next week’s ACT. He’s doing pretty well and is fine with the material, his challenge is staying focused during the test. He will read a question and then start thinking about the topic rather than answering the question. For example, if a question mentions solar energy, he will start thinking about an article he read on solar energy for 5 minutes, then has to rush through the rest of the test. Any suggestions on how he can avoid getting distracted?
@HMom16 Tell your S that a wandering mind isn’t helpful. Explain that this is 3.5 hours of his life and, during this time, he has to focus. It’s really not that long. Maybe, if his mind starts to wander, tell him to say the word “focus” to himself. Maybe take a deep breath. It’s really just a matter of “just do it” as Nike says. Tell him that he’s is in control of his wandering mind, he just has to decide ahead of time that he’s going to focus on the task at hand. If he’s saying, I can’t stop thinking about other things then he’s just making an excuse. The fact is that he CAN stop it. He just has to tell himself he can and then do it. He’s in control. Give him that pep talk. That’s the good news. He can do it.
All this being said, if he’s been diagnosed with ADD, that probably warrants better advice then I have to give.
Your post does make me wonder about how kids need to get used to focusing for longer periods. I think phones have become an issue. I’m not saying your son studies with his phone at his side, but many kids do and so they aren’t used to doing longer reading assignments without frequent breaks. I mentioned to our kids that I took a class in college that involved reading War and Peace. It was a nine-week class. We were on the quarter system. So, yes, in addition to my three other classes, I had to finish War and Peace in nine weeks. They couldn’t believe it. Even back in 1988, it seemed like a lot. I would go to the library with just that book and sit and read an annotate for hours. No phones back then! Kids do need to get used to focusing for longer periods before we ship them off to college.
@homerdog Thanks, I’ll take your advice and have him try it on his next practice test. He has never been evaluated for ADD, he is lucky to go to a school that keeps him engaged during classes. He does have focus issues during tests at school so if he learns to control his wandering mind, he will be better off there as well.
@HMom16 The other thing I would say is have him take those mental breaks between sections. The sections are short (except for math which is one hour). During the breaks, he shouldn’t be thinking about the test section he just took or the sections to come. Just have him relax and let his mind do the same. It’s hard to concentrate for four hours straight so those breaks are important.
I remember our S19 would repeat to himself “relaxed and focused” during his SAT so that he could focus but not rush or be tense. He said it really worked.
It was pay your fees and we’ll reveal your schedule day for our high school today. The snapchats were flying back and forth comparing who is in what, when and with whom. The schedule gods were kind to D21; good teachers; good locations; friends in most. I have a S23 starting as a freshman - he got the same English teacher that D21 had - not good. A quick email to the counselor and he’s already been switched to a new teacher. So all is good here.
@3kids2dogs glad they got good schedules. You have to pay to get their schedule? We are only in week 2 of summer.
Trying to get D21 to not be so lazy, we were away for dance last week so this is her first week of relaxing. I’ll give her another day or 2 and then start pushing.
@AndreaLynn You don’t literally pay for the schedule, but the school won’t release it until you pay all the various registration fees.
That’s great that you can see the schedule so soon. We got preliminary ones for S21 and D23 but all it shows is the classes they have so we can check that is correct (it was). No teacher assignments yet and the class periods could change. Probably won’t get the actual schedule until a couple weeks before school. S21 got his AP Government score - a 3. He was a little disappointed but he also didn’t seem to prepare that much so good for him to see the impact of that with three more coming up in junior year.
It barely seems like summer here, we’ve been so busy. S21 is working as a camp counselor every day. D23 just got back from an intense 2-week sleepaway camp so she has a week to relax but really needs to focus on learning her marching band music. We leave Sat. for a much needed 1-week vacation but I’m also leaving today for a business trip and then get back right before we leave.
Wow - we get schedules on August 26! Give you as little time as possible to call and complain!
I think the school just recognizes the reality of the community - they are going to make requests to change the schedules for whatever reason (me included, though I think this is the ONLY teacher in the school I would complain about), so you may as well leave time to take care of all this stuff early before you are also dealing with college apps, etc.
The counselor’s bounce back said he’d be out of the office until Aug 5th, but he switched my son’s schedule within 20 minutes of me sending the email. I thanked him profusely and said I wasn’t expecting to hear back until August and he responded “No worries! I have had about 45 emails since last night so just trying to get ahead of the curve!” Yikes!
We have to have real reasons to change a schedule and not liking a teacher, unfortunately, is not one of them. We can request teachers on the down low. Most people don’t know that and I just flat out asked our counselor one time. She basically told me not to write it in an email but call her if I have requests and she will see what she can do. Well, D21 got the two teachers I “requested” last year so I think the GC worked her magic. D21 had the absolute worst math teacher last year and we couldn’t change. I begged the math chair (who I know) and he said he couldn’t switch her because other parents would then be asking. He was getting a lot of calls about how bad this teacher was. Our choice was for her to stay or drop down to non-honors math for just that year. You all won’t believe it, but we chose the latter. She took regular Algebra 2/trig last year to get out of that class. The math chair told us that if she hit a certain percentage grade in that class that he would she could come back to the honors track this year and she’s doing that. Soooooo many kids didn’t do well in the class that she left. The teacher never taught the class before and kids had to correct her answer keys, etc. She did not teach the material well yet had to give the same tests that the other teachers gave and the kids were never prepared very well. It was bad. D21 had a hard enough schedule last year and I didn’t want the stress of dealing with that kind of a teacher!
I requested certain APUSH and AP Lang teachers for her this year. S19 had both of them and they were life changers. I hope she gets them!
D21 was so nervous to get AP World scores, she swore she did bad and was hoping for a 2. I told her not to worry about the score before the exam, she was shocked that she got a 4! AP World was the only one she took this year.
Congrats @AndreaLynn We got our daughter’s AP results this morning and she did really well so it’s all smiles around here.
Our school gives the schedules out a few days before school ends. The kids then spend two days trying to switch into classes with their friends or move their free periods, if they have them, to better times.
Daughter got some good test score news that past couple of days. 710 in SAT Math II subject test and 5 in AP Human Geography. She is volunteering 4 hours a day at a daycare center. We are going on vacation out west in a few weeks and going to fit a tour of University of San Diego and University of Washington into the trip. When we come back its drivers license test and shoulder surgery before school starts
@burghdad Congrats on the test scores and the summer plans. Best of luck with the upcoming surgery. I hope her recovery is speedy and uncomplicated.