Got S23’s rank this morning - he moved up 50 spots from 24.6% to 18.6%. Huge jump - although I worry that he won’t be able to maintain or improve on that (considering what he’s going through). Wishing I had known he was struggling before summer so that he could have gotten therapy before school started.
Different note, I met his therapist yesterday - it was a 1 hour session with parent only. I liked her a lot - S23 will meet with her first time on Monday. Praying that he likes her and is receptive. We will see.
@Mom_2023 - 4 years of Math is still 4 years of math no matter when you took it (as long as it is not pre-hs).
Think about the breakdown
3 years of English - Hon English 9, Hon English 10, Ap English Lang
4 years of Math - Hon Alg, AP Stats, Hon Pre Calc, AP Calc BC (check) plus 2 computer classes
3 years LabScience - Bio, Chem, Physics
3 years Language - Hon Spanish 2-4
4 years Social Sciences - AP Human Geo, APWSH, APUSH, AP Macro)
What would her Senior year schedule look like?
Any general thoughts on colleges she may be considering?
That was not true for my D’s HS. Regardless of level reached, 4 years of HS math was required for graduation. When my D doubled up on math junior year, the head of the AP program called us and made sure we understood that she had to take a math class senior year and that we were limiting her options because if she needed to drop down a level there would be nothing left to take and she wouldn’t get her diploma.
D23 just started school this week (private, Southern California). She struggled sophomore year with focus and motivation in the hybrid format, particularly since her most difficult courses (AP Spanish, honors pre-calc) were entirely online until mid-April. Her original junior year schedule had significantly dialed back the rigor (for her) to give her some breathing room and to allow her to take two electives (creative writing and theater). Before school began, she made a couple of changes to increase the rigor (went from AP Physics 2 to AP Physics C - Mechanics and from honors US history to APUSH), but I insisted that she stick with Calc AB instead of Calc BC. Luckily, her school is flexible enough that if she loves calc and wants to continue she will be allowed to do Calc BC senior year.
She’s also doing AP Language and Comp with the same teacher her older brother had: I’m happy because this teacher had high standards and prepared the kids well for the exam (brother got a 4) but didn’t impose a crushing workload.
Rounding out her schedule is Spanish literature 1, which is the school’s post-AP course and is reportedly less work than AP. D23 shocked herself (and me, quite frankly) by getting a 4 on the AP Spanish exam. After her first Spanish class this year, she was thrilled to report that she could understand everything the teacher said without translating it into English in her head.
Fingers crossed this coursework will be the right amount of rigor for her this year – challenging but not crushing.
BTW, her older brother, S20, graduated high school with “only” 3 APs and 3 honors courses total and had lots of wonderful choices for college, as did his classmates who graduated with fewer or none.
In our HS there is also a requirement that a math class be taken senior year (they just don’t want seniors slacking off and taking the minimum credits to get by) but in the case of our school, the requirement could be met with something like Advanced Algebra with Financial Applications or some other elective if the core progression has already been maxed out.
@Mom_2023 You really do have to find out the particulars at your school. I hope a meeting with the GC will prove helpful and that you and D are able to sort things out in a satisfactory way before the school year gets much further along. Keep us posted!
Good luck to the ACT test-takers today!
S23 woke up yesterday with his roommate’s head cold and suffered through class and texted me that he was going to make it to the ACT and he’d do his very best but not to expect Great Things…at which point I decided that it made no sense to force it and rescheduled him to December. When we can get the TIR and he’ll have more math under his belt.
He’s struggling a bit in pre-calc honors, so I’m relieved. He is not a math dude, not matter how hard he tries. It’s genetic
My son did a practice ACT last week in school so I wasn’t going to force him to do another one so soon. He isnt a math lover either. I can’t math. Hate math. Im a people person.
Hi, all! Haven’t been here for a while. Will need to read a lot to catch up.
Interesting to see all the different ways HS’s track math. Our school has either Honors Pre-Calc ->Calc BC->some DE advanced classes. or DE Pre-Cacl->AP Calc AB->AP Calc BC. The math teachers really encourage kids to take the AB and BC class sequence if they are on track for a calculus class junior year. That’s what S21 did + AP Stats too in senior year. Gave him a really solid, not rushed foundation in calculus. He’s now at VT as a computation modeling & data analytics major. They gave him credit for Calc 1 but require all to take Calc 2 on campus. He says it’s all review for him, at least so far.
D23 plans on a science major and is doing Calc AB this year but won’t take more calculus senior year, just AP Statistics. She does NOT like math. For an environmental science major, I’d think the statistics would be more important anyway.
She got her first SAT score yesterday and was very happy to get 1400, she thought she did badly on it. That’s still a bit below W&M’s average (her top choice right now) so will work on math practice to bring up that score since it was significantly lower than the verbal.
It’s been a good first 2 weeks of school for D23! So far the course load is easier than last year despite more honors/AP, but it will definitely pick up later. She loves the BC calc teacher and the PhysicsC teacher, both of whom D21 found intimidating though helpful, so that is interesting.
She did her first SAT in August, got the scores late on Friday afternoon and took the ACT Saturday. She could easily be one-and-done with the SAT score but wants to try one more time on math for the “wow” score. But there is no need, and we assume her counselor will tell her the same.
The ACT isn’t really her test and she didn’t do any prep until the day after the SAT (so 10 days)–but the practices were all “goal” scores so that one could be one and done too, even if she just misses the high practice score. (School recommended she try both SAT and ACT once, based on 10th grade assessments–otherwise she might have just done SAT because the ACT is so time-pressured it is anxiety-provoking)
Huh, well, here’s something I did not know; hope it helps others.
We had to reschedule DS’s Saturday ACT test after he woke up Friday with a bad head cold. Got the test reskedded, not a problem, and I thought I was being clever by going to the Dec. 11 date, so we could avail ourselves of the TIR scoring.
Turns out that no, you can’t do that if you reschedule. It’s some kind of firm ACT rule. No clue why.
Rough time here too - son “didn’t see” the median and ran over it twice - blew all 4 tires and damaged rims. He had lots of homework and worked 2 shifts over weekend. Attitude is bearable but I anticipate build up exploding soon. Back to chauffeur duties…sigh.
Ouch! My D did the mini version on her first driving lesson last weekend - struck a curb hard enough to require a tire replacement. Things have gotten better since then, though. She can now shift from first to second and has only had a couple of close calls. Things get riskier once you leave the big empty parking lot, right?
Yep. What’s sad is that he was getting confident and proud of how he was doing with his driving. Saying he was so aware of the different kinds of drivers out there and cautiously avoiding the “bad” ones. lol.
My D17 ran into a mailbox back when she was 17—and the mailbox turned out to have a 6(!)-foot concrete footing, and had a really heavy decorative piece hanging from it (made from a slice of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline!), so the car was in the shop for a couple weeks to fix the damage.
She now is a pretty bad backseat driver when her siblings drive, and claims that her accident doesn’t count because she was so much younger then.
I’ve been pretty much off the board all summer, but thought I’d contribute. S23 is starting the 5th week of school…homecoming!! Been a very busy start, being located in the Northern Plains the boys tennis season is very condensed, so we are actually into the final week of the regular season. Team will be one of 3 teams fighting for 2 spots so this week is vital for seeding. S23 is one of the team captains, so a has a few extra responsibilities, but they seem to fall more on captain’s parents
S23 decided to drop German, he has 2 years, so his load is APUSH, APEnglish, Pre-Calc, Chemistry, Finance and management. So far so good!!
He has not done any visits, but he will be touring Colorado School of Mines, when we are in Denver visiting his big brother at DU.
Baseball is still in the cards, he was awarded the Cy Young award for his legion team this past summer so we are trying to put together highlights, stats and all that fun stuff for recruiting. Good luck to everyone’s kiddos!!
There was a full moon last weekend, right? That’s the only explanation – my kid also was in an accident. Totally his fault - he was rushing to get to work and pulled out into traffic to make a left turn and T-boned a car. No injuries and both cars driveable; we are forgoing the deductible and living with the fender damage to our car but the other car will need doors replaced, at least. RIP our insurance policy renewal…
It’s been a bit of an awful week; a friend with Covid, another friend’s mom is in dire straits with kidney failure, can’t visit D19 at college because of all kinds of Covid exposure around, house maintenance issues. Ugh.
