If he enjoys playing music I think this is good way to go. especially as some of this can be done remotely if needed. I know many of of my friends kids are doing Music online now adays.
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Good point on the booster shot and interacting with too many people. Something to keep in mind.
Learning to drive is on DS list also and I totally forgot about it 
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my older one finished sat prep and the sat in october of junior year, very different kid and different goals but i am wondering if intensive prep over the summer is a crazy thought. Older one is a performer so a satisfactory outcome is very different than for this one. seems like a crazy way to spend a summer but if he doesnt want to go awayâŚ
Has he taken a practice test or the PSAT 10 ? Using the of the practice/PSAT 10 results is a good way to start seeing how much prep may be needed to get his target score. If he is close to his target score much prep may not be needed. He can spend some time each week but need to have to be every day for multiple hours.
yup, waiting to see the results. COVID has made it so he never took a standardized test or a final so we shall see, very different from my older one who took it once, got a 1430 and we were done
Iâm looking forward to D24 getting her license. She gets her permit over winter break, I hope. We will be practicing after that.
I had my S21 prep summer into his junior year because he chose to take 5 APs+engr elective, on top of ECs. It was better for him to focus in the summer when he only had one project, swim. My D24 will thrive with the space to focus on prep so we are opting for summer prep with a Sept test plan and a second back up test in Dec.
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That sounds like our plan, I think that seems the most reasonable if he doesnt want to go away and do music this summer, get a job and do prep over the summer in hopes of getting a good enough score in the fall and a psat score to at least get a national merit semifinalist (finalists here in the northeast i understand is almost impossible) and then go into a very intense school year with ECs.
Speaking of drivingâŚlord have mercy. DS24 got his permit and it is so hard not to be terrified 
and itâs not like he is bad, he just knows NOTHING and the only way to learn is by practicing but I feel like I need a few drinks and an Ativan before taking him out 
and my husband took him out one time and DS says never again b/c he âyells too muchâ so it is all on me now. In MA we have a 12 hour requirement of actual driving lessons from an auto school so I am thinking of having him do all of those before we go out againâŚanyone else finding this whole driving thing scary?
So in NJ you have to drive for 6 (?) hours with a driving school before you can go with anyone else. This saved me with my S21. I would have lost my mind driving with him first and it was worth every penny. Also, the school by us is all staffed by our local HS gym teachers so the kids are always on their best behavior. My S24 doesnât turn 16 until the summer so that is definitely first on the list for summer plans
Once your kid has a driverâs license, how bad does the insurance rate become?
If your family has 2 cars with 3 drivers now, is the insurance increase incremental? or dramatically increase because a 16-year-old boy is high risk?
Yes I am nervous about DS24 driving. He was very keen to learn last year but interest has gone a bit down since then. I wont mind if he wants to wait a bit longer to get. He is pretty independent kid in general so he we will let him decide how he wants to proceed.
My H took my S out to an isolated parking lot to get used to operating the car. Then we had him go 2x with the instructor, then I took over and we saved his last lesson for the instructor until shortly before the test. Heâs a cautious driver - sometimes too much - but then would whip into a parking space like nobodyâs business.
D24 has made a little noise about it but doesnât show any interest in studying for the written permit test. I think we will wait a bit with her as she is QUITE impatient with others and tends to run late.
Our rates went way up with S21 partially because his grandpa bought him a newer model car.
We had 4 cars and the oldest one was a 2015. If you have an old car. Donât sell it. Even if you donât use it, just use that to assign to your kid.
My husband and I were paying $1300 ish every 6 months. Added S21 and it went to $2400/6 months. He had the good grades, etc. Coming home from swim practice, he dinged someone at the off ramp. Nothing wrong with their car but DH didnât want to just write them a $609 check. Rates then went up to $5800/6 mo. As soon as he hit the ground in college, we took him off our policy. Itâs back to $1300/6 mo. Heâs just not going to drive when he gets home during break. 
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5800 for 6 months 
never realized it could go that high.
For kids who will apply to CSU and UCs, if you remember anything from this group thread (even when we get to 10k posts)âŚplease try to get them to apply by 11/28 at the latest. Iâve been monitoring. Once again, this year UC and CSU sites down. Started last night. They extended (UC) but kids had to have started their app already. No extension yet for CSU. This happened last year and also the year before.
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Dipping my toe in hereâŚanyone else in a state awaiting PSAT 10 results next week? I think ours will be released on Monday. I am anxious. My D24 is a very bright girl, and a good test taker, but not the most serious student. Her gradesâwhile âfineââare not necessarily a reflection of her abilities.
I canât decide if I am hoping she knocks it out of the park on the PSATs (and then hopefully, subsequently on the SATs next year), to have that to bolster what would otherwise be a pretty average college application, or if I am wishing for her test scores to just match her school performance, so we can just define some target schools and stop worrying about getting reachy or chasing merit.
In any event, the wait is killing me! And here I thought I had learned to chill out about it all after going through the whole (emotionally exhausting) process with my D20âŚ
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We are. My daughterâs high school is terrible with communication so I donât even know how to get into her account to see the results. She said she didnât get any papers.
Mine said she had trouble finishing but Iâm hoping itâs just the math. I really tried not to put any pressure on her about it but Iâm really curious. She did very well on the state testing but that was years ago now.
I am also waiting for PSAT results next week (not good at waiting in general) . I have heard that school counsellors have this info but ours donât share. Some schools share via there Naviance I believe. We are going to have to until next week.
I am also hoping the results will help us plan for the next two years especially for taking SAT. We are not looking for merit aid as much as help us set better target then just look widely.
If you D does not have a college Board account she will most likely need to create one to view it. They may send directions on how to do this.
Son is taking an AP class and registered for AP exam in May so he created college board account as part of that registration.
Our school communication said we should visit for more information:
we live in Indiana and have DS in sophomore and got our PSAT results. My son checked on collegeboard i think