I ended up being able to switch DS to a Dec. 5 SAT at a different nearby high school. We’ll see if it lasts!
Ditto: we didn’t send scores before seeing them. Won’t this year either. I want my kid to test because he tests pretty well, but I suspect lots of places will remain test optional. Might as well wait to see what happens.
S22 got his SAT scores from November this morning. He got a 1520! Pretty happy about that!
He first took it in August and had a 1450. The split was 700 English and 750 math. The lowest section was reading with a 33/40. He worked hard on the reading for the PSAT and did a review for this test. He improved to a 39/40 in Reading and a 770 English score. His math stayed the same at 750. Funny because he is excellent in math. I think some of the concepts are too far back and he just doesn’t figure it out fast enough.
He’ll do the SAT one more time in April as part of the school requirement. I’ll have him just do more math problems to try to improve that score. The only reason he needs a higher score is for his class ranking calculation, so studying doesn’t hurt.
S22 was signed up for Nov 7 SAT, it was canceled. We tried to find a spot in the Dec sitting, everything around here (SF Bay Area) was already full. Now we have a March 2021 SAT reservation. It’s actually an hour away, but we’re fortunate his grandparents actually live pretty close to it. We’ll spend the night before at their house.
@Luanne – great news! So nice to have a terrific score as a foundation.
@sfSTEM – glad he has a spot in March. It is fascinating to me that you are so much more shut down than places with many more cases. Hopefully CA stays safe!
@Luanne, congrats to your son. Sounds like his hard work paid off!
We got a notification from the school yesterday about the January PSAT with the following, “The safety of students is our number one priority and we will not administer the test if we believe we cannot do it safely as we get closer to the test date,” so I guess we will see if it happens or not.
We have not signed up for an SAT date yet because D22 wanted to take the PSAT first. She is still looking at going to the UK and they require that ALL test scores be submitted and they don’t superscore or anything. Ideally it’s more of a one and done situation. So being able to do the PSAT would really help with practice, but I guess it’ll be what it is. I will be so glad when it’s 2021!
@sfSTEM glad you have a March date and it’s not totally inconvenient. All these cancellations are so hard.
I am full of homeschooling advice, lol. Feel free to message me. My older two homeschooled through high school (and attended selective colleges, fwiw).
Yes, she could go back later this year as far as the district is concerned, but it would make the most sense to follow through with the homeschool classes through the end of the year.I think she would be more eager to go back if things would be normal-normal, but not with the significant changes likely in any return-to-in-person for this school year.
Heads up all. Monday morning (Nov 23), CC will be read-only mode as they transition to a new UI. Get your comments in now, if you have 'em. They don’t set a defined day when new posts and comments will be enabled again.
Hi team. Checking back in after about a year away. After the rush of getting our S19 into his school (whew!), his sister - D22 - is starting to feel the excitement/tension. During our son’s search, we visited 22 schools. Now, with fresh ACT scores in hand, we’re starting to look around again, although like most we don’t send the scores until we match them with target schools. PSAT-NMSQT results come out next week, and my mind is numb from NPC calcs.
We set a limit on how much of the EFC we can sponsor, and the kiddos have to pay or borrow the balance. We also set a monthly budget for their CC’s (in their name so they can build credit). DS chose a school below our cutoff, so he owes us nothing on tuition. We reconcile his expenses on his card each semester - if he overspends he owes us the difference, if he underspends then good news for our bank account.
Only comment on the recent posts is for @Luanne and @christinelin -
We read and received lots of advice on test taking. The consensus was that if wrong answers were only partial deductions, then always guess. That’s because if it’s a 1/3 deduction, and you guess on 4 questions only getting one right, you are still even - with a much bigger potential upside. Rounding helps further, since you can actually miss 4 questions at 1/3 deduct each, and round up to the same as missing only 3, so one right answer out of 5 guesses breaks even. Since you can also usually exclude at least one obviously wrong choice per question, the odds are even more in your favor.
Of course, my advice is worth what you paid for it. My username means that I consider Dadding my main job, not that I’m necessarily a “pro”. Not sure I like the new layout, but I need somewhere to be able to dump about this process. And the pressure is rising, so…
Well, this UI update is not great. I’m posting a comment here to see if those who have this discussion bookmarked see a notification. Like previous changes, I guess we’ll get used to it.
Maybe…
I’m trying the “Watching” tab to follow this thread now. We’ll see how that works.
SAT for S22 comes up Dec 5. He also had the ACT scheduled in a few weeks but I am trying to get him to push it to the spring. I don’t think he has time to prepare, and I’m not sure the ACT will be a good test for him.
PSAT scores come back Dec 8! How he does on that will influence what schools we try to visit over his spring break.
First post on the new forum. Hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. Thinking more about college visits. Realizing that this daughter really needs to see schools before applying much more so than her sisters did. Realizing also that she will likely not have the merit aid opportunities that her last sister did, and wondering how to best manage that situation.
@GoodGrief16, I love trying to find good merit options. If you want help, feel free to share what you need in terms of merit (ie: what you are looking to pay – everyone’s good merit is different) and roughly what her profile is and what kinds of places you like so far. I am happy to look to see if I can find anything intriguing.
My older kid was easier to find good merit fits for, but I think I have a couple good ones for this guy. He is also supposed to take the SAT on Saturday. Fingers crossed that a) it is safe and b) it doesn’t get cancelled.
@christinelin - I hope it doesn’t get canceled! My son has thought the SAT and ACT were all very safe feeling with plenty of space, masks required and worn, etc. Especially if the kids have done school or activities in person with restrictions, they are pretty good at just doing those safe measures now.
I am hopeful we can do a few college tours over spring break in April. We’ve been to the U Michigan campus a few times, but S has never wanted to walk around, because “who wants to see buildings?”. Lol.
I am waiting in the car while DS is in the SAT, so one goal accomplished! Here’s hoping he doesn’t get Covid (I agree that it should be fairly safe with masks and distancing) and that the Nor’easter doesn’t knock the power out!
I, too, am hopeful that perhaps we will be able to do some college visits in March, but expecting that the summer is more realistic for us. The good news may be that he could have his list narrowed down some by then.
I’m glad! Good luck to him!
Hi all, I haven’t posted in a while.
S22 got his Nov SAT scores back, he got 1470, he was hoping for 1500, so he’s a bit disappointed, but we’re very happy.
He’s got a couple teachers who are very difficult to please this tear, so I think we’re hoping for half As and half Bs or a little better with his difficult schedule.
We did get an initial college list out of him, not sure how much it will change before next year. He’s not interested in virtual visits, so I think we’ll just do in person visits over the summer after vaccines are available.
Oh, you are so sweet! Well, ideally, I’d like to find full tuition. That is probably dreaming with this student (very good, 4.0, but not super motivated/inspiring. Initial test scores look just okay; I’m not sure her writing/interviewing is going to be great.) She’s interested in physical therapy at this point, and we may investigate a couple of the direct admit to DPT options, but that is not necessary. I became pretty familiar with merit options during the search for her older two sisters, but they were different sorts of students. My last daughter in particular was highly competitive for the top scholarships. That’s not going to be this daughter. Which is fine but means we need to plan. 
I am open to any promising leads you find!!
Sorry, another post! Can’t figure out how to edit the old post in this format. Anyway, just a shoutout to @Lovetogolf! Fantastic score for your son!
Great! I have a crazy work week, but will try to look soon!