Just got S22’s scores for the December SSAT. He improved, going to 2151 (75th percentile) from 2094 (63rd). Math and (especially) verbal rose, while reading ticked down a little. We’re thinking we’ll call that good enough. The admissions person at a school he’s touring right now with my wife said they don’t put the most weight on SSAT scores, especially for people coming from outside the U.S. prep-courses pressure cooker. Might still be on the low side for his reach school, but there’s a reason those score thresholds are averages and not absolutes. Plus, he’s liked both of the public possibilities he’s toured, so we’re not desperate to get him into a private school. Feeling good about the situation overall.
D22 had an essay, lab and a test this week. Tomorrow is the last day of classes, but she still have assigned homework for tomorrow and a project for a break 
Would like for her to rest, recharge and read a lot during the break.
We just came back from my daughter’s band winter concert. Looking forward to the break, although she will still have water polo training 5 days during break.
First semester finals are over. D did well - all A’s, lowest grade was 95%, all honors classes. Very proud of her. Now for some well deserved relaxation.
Finals here aren’t until mid-January. They have 1.5 weeks of class after the break. It looks like he has As now, but some of the teachers are pretty slow at grading. He has a paper for ELA that he handed in in early November that he hasn’t had graded yet. We aren’t sure what to do on finals. He isn’t required to take them if he has 3 or fewer days missed of school. I think I will make him pick 2-3 to take for a good experience and practice.
@Luanne My S22’s K-8 school had a similar schedule. There was a stub period after Christmas break to finish off the first semester. Not such a big deal then, although I always wondered how the teachers handle a 2-3 week break in the middle of their lesson plans.
Glad I found this thread! Cannot believe we halfway through the year. Looks like my D22 on track to get all A’s for the semester. Done with midterms already. She goes to the top public school in our state and they don’t do AP first year of high school. All the classes Honors and she already has 4 high school credits. She takes IM3, Biology, English, Spanish 2, Art, Life Wellness. Seems a little lite to me, but we have no choices first year. Hoping to get better courses next year. She did good on her PSAT test, 99%. They take regular PSAT every year to practice. D22 seems to be much happier this year with the school. She enjoys debate (very unexpectedly), science bowl and finally found sport to love - fencing. And she is 12 years old 
if anyone here have a kiddo younger for the grade - love to chat. College now seems to be too close, real and somewhat scary, considering she wil be 16 when she goes!!! Most likely will go into CS major. Seems like this major gets more and more competitive, so a little worried on where to start with competitive resume but want her just enjoy her first year on high school.
Original post removed since posted in incorrect forum. Sorry.
Hope you all are enjoying the time with your 2022 kids! Happy New Year.
Oops, thought this was for parents of kids graduating college, not high school, in 2022. Happy New Year anyway, and enjoy every second of their time at home because it goes by way too fast!
@NolaCAR so sorry I never saw our message to me on here. I haven’t logged in in forever. Yes my ds '17 is doing well at school. He loves his choice of University of Kentucky and just headed back for his 4th semester. Not quite ready to start thinking about college with my ds 22. He is my youngest (I only have the 2) and I’m not even ready to think about them both being out of the house. He is doing well in HS but he’s a totally different student than my ds17 so it’ll be a much different process for sure.
Decided to go for a public high school for our S22, which was genuinely the school he, his sister and my wife liked best when they did school visits (I had to work and couldn’t go). Pleased to save the tuition money and avoid the hassle of the private-school application process, and he’ll get an excellent education. Now to find a house to rent in that town!
Good luck @Vineyarder ! I hope you find a great house.
@Vineyarder the things we do for our kids, right? Good luck! About 9 years ago we moved from the neighborhood I had grown up in and lived almost all of my life, so that my eldest could attend a public high school. Worked out well for her, and us. Hope it goes well for your family too.
Hi all! I am so glad I found CC for my S19 and with his D22 sister, I feel she will have more info along the way to help achieve her goals. D22 is my type A kiddo and she is having a pretty good 1st semester at high school. We live in Mass but are from Atlanta, GA by way of Houston, Texas. She is bright, funny, and a very hard worker. After going thru many obstacles with S19 it is my hopes that D22 will be a bit more less bumpy, lol along the way to graduaton and college acceptances
Met a family over the winter break and the mom’s advice is to take the ACT asap, what do you think?
D22 is in Honors English and History. Struggles a bit with math. She is “professional show dog assistant” with the Corgi dog breed since 13 (she’s 15) and looking forward to starting driver’s ed this summer
Welcome @ga19tex ! I have a 2022 son myself. As for the ACT, not sure what benefit taking it now would give. Scores in 9th grade won’t be as good as scores in 11th grade. Also, I’ve read that the ACT may be somewhat better for kids with a math orientation. From an article on prepscholar:
"In regard to math content, the ACT and SAT both have a big emphasis on algebra. But the ACT also tests a couple of concepts that the SAT doesn’t focus on as much.
To start, the ACT has a much larger focus on geometry, which makes up about 35-45 percent of ACT Math. By contrast, geometry accounts for less than 10 percent of SAT Math questions. In addition, trigonometry accounts for about 7 percent of the ACT but less than 5 percent of the SAT, so there’s a slightly larger emphasis of trig on the ACT than there is on the SAT.
The ACT also tests a few concepts that the SAT doesn’t test at all. These include things such as matrices, graphs of trig functions, and logarithms."
More near term, I’m thinking about SAT Subject Tests for my son, but not until the end of his sophomore year.
I wonder about this ACT math issue myself, because my older three kids took such higher level math that by the time they were taking the ACT, it’d been years since they’d actually studied the math on the ACT…does that make sense? So, for my fourth kid, we may consider him taking the ACT earlier, just so the math is fresher. Still thinking on this…
we signed her up for the April test date!
I just want to expose her to a baseline - for a college test - she does really well in science
I think D will be taking both tests beginning start of junior year (after/with psat). Also, since many schools either requite or suggest Subject tests, our D will will take the Math II sophomore year (based on the classes she’s taken). Interestingly, our S16 ( junior in college now) just took the GRE and missed a few in the math section (simple geometry). I was (jokingly) giving him a hard time about that (he’s a math minor) and he told me that had he hasn’t used geometry since HS and that had he taken it his freshman year of college he would not have missed any. So, timing can influence outcome.
Welcome, @ga19tex ! We have a D19 along with our S22. S has tagged along to lots of college visits already thanks to his older sister. S22 has different interests from his sister, but he has a sense of the college application process.
He’ll probably take the ACT as a sophomore (when he’s taking Algebra 2) and will take the SAT in the fall of junior year. No SAT subject tests.