My son’s ACT date was cancelled…twice. Poor kid was preparing most of the summer. His private school is doing a hybrid model. Virtual for those that want it, and in person for the rest. For the 9-12 graders, as of yesterday, 11% has opted for virtual. The in person will be two (2) classes of three (3) hours each per day on a rotating schedule. Lunch will be picked up and eaten in smaller advisories. No band or choir. State is allowing football and girl’s soccer (okay?!?). You can switch between on and off campus with a week’s notice. They encourage the kids to go home if not in class. With one exception, his classes are all under ten (10) students. He will be required to sanitize his desk before and after class. Classrooms will be be specially cleaned at night. Masks are required. Social distancing is in effect. Special pathways are being used to allow movement between classes. The school used to be a dormitory school. Some classrooms are converted dorm rooms. If those rooms are too small, they are not being used. In some instances, classes will be held in the theater, stage, gym, etc. Temperature checks are mandatory on entering school grounds. The school also truncated the offered curriculum, impacting my son’s choices. He is in the IB program. So…he will be taking five (5) HLs instead of the usual three (3), including Physics, Math, Spanish, and English. I have faith in him. He’s a good kid and gets his work done, but this academic year could be rough.
@sfSTEM we were a little surprised! He did a few practice tests and would do well on a couple parts, but not as a whole. We knew he could get a 36 in math, science, and English if it was the right test. But, he really struggled finishing the reading section. We worked on various strategies to skim, speed up, etc, but every practice test left him guessing on the final 5-8 questions because he ran out of time. The real one was the first one he finished, so we were super happy to see his score.
@Peruna1998 wow! 5HL sounds really hard! S is also starting the IB diploma program. He has 4 HL scheduled and we haven’t heard if anything is changing.
Congratulations, @Luanne . It must feel great to have that weight off your shoulders.
We just received the very bad news for my class of 22 student that we will be going fully virtual until the winter break. Heartbreaking for her. She was still hoping they would be able to enjoy even a tiny bit of a very diluted marching band season this fall.
@InfoQuestMom Sorry to hear the tough news for your D. My son is also a marching band kid, and their competitive season was canceled a week ago. Although he plans to go with the hybrid plan and attend 2 days/week, the band director says no playing wind instruments indoors (S plays saxophone), so he is dropping band for now. I am hoping he finds some motivation to continue playing with virtual private lessons.
@InfoQuestMom - sorry to hear that. Our marching band is going on now, but no word on whether there will be any performances at all. I’m still waiting to hear what the school day bands will look like this year here. Last I heard, they were thinking of moving to the auditorium and well spread out.
My DD22’s school is all virtual for the first quarter and I am super relieved and she is as well. She is taking A-PUSH and it seems like that will be fine online. She’s been doing her summer assignments for it. School starts in 1.5 weeks. She is also taking Theater, so it will be interesting to see how that works online.
My S22 is in the exact same boat. He also plays golf year round at a highly competitive level. I wish he could do more to prepare for the SAT/ACT but his schedule doesn’t allow for it especially with all the AP summer work.
Checking in, as we are about to officially start junior year here in our area next week. Yikes. The summer really did go by quickly.
Our area is one of very low numbers, and until the last few weeks, it seemed like school might be a go. What that looks like here has rapidly changed. My daughter was eager to go back, but, long story short, as of last week we are (mostly) homeschooling now.
I graduated two homeschoolers (both are done with college now), and this daughter homeschooled through the fourth grade. She has been a happy building-based school attendee since then though. We all have mixed feelings about this turn of events, but it is what it is. The process of homeschooling high school is not unfamiliar to me, so that makes it easier. I know she hopes to go back senior year, so we have set up to ease that transition (and I know we won’t be alone there, as the crisis homeschooler population has exploded.)
Her subjects won’t be too different than what she had at school, though she is doing physics instead of AP Biology (oddly, her school does not offer a non-AP Physics option), and “honors” US History instead of APUSH. She’s doing AP Eng Lang and precalc at home as well, then hopefully German 3 at the school. Band is a big question mark. If it happens, she will continue that at school too.
Like others have reported, PSAT prep has been happening here this summer. I’m not sure how seriously she has taken it though. The reports here did make me look at the registration for the October SAT, but I have not registered her yet. That’s the plan though, if it’s possible.
School sports have not started here yet,but they are supposed to start on Monday, conditioning only (outside and masked.) It’s hard to get too excited about that. D22 has done cross country running and I do hope she can do that in some form. She is not uber competitive, so this is not a critical year as far as college participation though. If the season happens, she will participate at the high school she normally attends.
She did end up getting a job and has been a happy Starbucks employee. I am pleased about that, as I think it’s good for her to get a taste of the working world.
D22 did report an initial interest in pursuing a physical therapy career. Sounds like a potentially good plan to me. Not overly interested in colleges at this point.
D’s high school just reported that 74% of families plan on attending in person, while 26% will be remote. This includes a substantial number of foreign students who are stuck abroad because of travel restrictions. I am hopeful that we can salvage some level of normalcy this fall!
School started last week for S22 at his all boys Catholic high school. About 1300 boys in one building, albeit a large one. The first few days have gone well. They’ve split them up such that the students alternate in person and remote days. While in person, his largest class has ten students and his smallest has 4. They mask, and keep distant when moving about the building. On remote days S22 signs in but then can do his work independently throughout the day. S22 enjoys that flexibility.
Cross country did start today. Have some competing risks going on, as they want the kids running 10 feet apart on a trail frequented by bears and moose, where a group of runners is probably a better deterrent. But it is what it is, and hopefully all will be well. No races scheduled at this point; just the conditioning part. Normally the training would have started at the end of July, so this is quite late.
Was able to secure a spot for D22 in the two classes I want her to take at the neighborhood school. They are block scheduling for Covid, with only three classes per quarter. Her two classes are scheduled to start second quarter (and continue in fourth quarter.) I am glad about this, and hoping she can get ahead a bit in her other subjects before adding those in.
S22’s school is implementing a block schedule as well. 3 or 4 classes per semester. I looked at several other private schools here in San Francisco, and a number are doing block schedules. Not all though.
@GoodGrief16 I see your D22’s school is doing a block schedule. Are others seeing a similar approach by local schools?
@sfSTEM My D22’s high school here in Florida (public, Brevard County) is doing Block semesters. She is taking AP Calculus, Spanish 3, Naval ROTC and Honors Physics this term. Students had 4 different options for attendance, but we decided with her courses, in person classes would be best. The school system seems to have a good COVID-19 plan and a lot of students have chosen the Virtual option, so the schools shouldn’t be nearly as crowded.
We did our first college visitation last month to Mercer University (GA) and she is scheduled to take the SAT Sept. 29th. While SAT’s are increasingly “optional” for admissions in a number of schools now, it’s important to remember that for a great number of scholarships, SAT scores are essential. She wants to take the test 3 times between now and next August so she can get the best possible superscore. She’s been doing SAT prep with Khan Academy and the prep books I bought, but when it comes to standardized tests, she will go into a serious panic attack and her scores reflect that. She is very smart and has great grades and EC’s but she worries her SAT scores will limit her. She took a practice test this weekend and broke down in tears when she saw her score.
I am just hoping this year goes smoothly, but I don’t hold much hope. I think that by October 15th, Florida will be back to all online and most colleges and public schools.
I haven’t been here in a while. My 22er has not done much this summer – played his cello pretty much daily, and recently helped his sister move in to her college apartment.
In July, he did take two practice tests (ACT/SAT) through a local testing company. He did ok on the SAT but not the ACT, so he wants to focus only on the SAT.
His high school will be doing the PSAT in October for 11th graders. Not sure how that is going to work as the entire school system will likely still be virtual, but we’ll see. He is scheduled for the November offering of the SAT.
School starts September 8 and he gets his schedule on September 2. Since I am still working from home, we are setting up a workspace for him to work in my home office. (Easier for me to make sure he’s not totally disengaged with his online classes.)
So I know people don’t want to state specifics on their child’s scores, but what is the general consensus of an OK or GOOD SAT/ACT practice test score for the summer before junior year? I can’t gauge how hard D needs to push herself to prepare at this point. Won’t just a year of maturity and coursework raise scores 100 pts or so?
My oldest had terrible test anxiety. Prep did help significantly, but we could not count on her being able to get through more than one SAT. I realized yesterday that with our abrupt change to homeschool, I am going to need to figure out where D22 can take the PSAT she’s been prepping for (assuming the PSAT happens, which I suppose is a big “if”)
@songbirdmama , as far as maturity raising scores, maybe. I think prep makes the biggest difference in raising scores, honestly. My D16 was exceptionally advanced in math, completely Alg 2 in 8th grade. She found her PSAT math score dropped between 9th and 10th grade, as she got further out from math that is tested on the PSAT. A review of that earlier math made all the difference in her 11th grade score.
School is officially on here, as the public schools started virtual on Thursday. It honestly just feels like endless summer (or the world’s longest spring break, as we left for spring break last March, never to return.) D22 seems to be getting on board with the homeschool rhythm. I still have some paperwork for the homeschool charter to complete. Should probably jump on that today, ugh.
We are joining many in the “find an open sat site” game. (We are in MI). Our local site cancelled early for the Aug. date, so we found a seat 2 hours away. Tonight they now say “to be rescheduled”. I just found a seat at a different site 2 hrs away for the Sept date, so we will keep trying. I can’t imagine how stressful this is for the seniors! It is aggravating enough for my S since he has been prepping most of summer.
@songbirdmama I think it depends a lot on where your kid is with classes. If they are taking math this year that is on the SAT, for example, then I would predict scores will increase with time. My S had pre-calc last year, so waiting will not help with math, though it might with reading and writing. I agree with @GoodGrief16 that prep helps a lot: practice tests and Khan academy materials.
Our school start date was pushed back a week due to poor planning, so my S will start the 2 day/ week at school hybrid model on Aug. 31. Good luck to all as school starts up!
D has done some of the Khan Academy prep, as well as taken a practice SAT, a practice ACT, and an independent assessment offered by her school to say which test format is “better” for her. Most kids come out roughly equal, but she did markedly better on the ACT-derived questions. However on her own practice tests, she did MUCH better on the SAT. As a result, she doesn’t know whether to prepare for and to take both tests or to pick one. While her private school will administer fall tests on site just to their student body, she will wait until after the New Year to start official testing. She will be in precalc this fall and I think this should be helpful with the math section, as stated above by @midwest mom9 and @GoodGrief16
S22 is signed up for the Nov. 7 SAT. He’s been prepping this summer both PSAT (Oct. 14) and the SAT. Fingers crossed the registration holds. I see reports of some kids getting their SAT registrations canceled as schools reduce sizes to accommodate social distancing.
@sfSTEM - just found out our registration cancelled for Aug 29. I found out by seeing charges back on our credit card. No other notifications! We signed up for September and for November now. We will see…