So in passing, I noticed in the Compass Prep blog PSAT FAQ about alternate entry with an SAT score, where selection index is calculated by capping each section score at 760, dropping the zero, doubling ebrw. Well, if we do that with S’s August score, the resulting selection index would be 3 points higher than last year’s NM qualifying score for our state.
However, I think students can only do alternate entry by skipping the PSAT. He literally just finished taking it this morning. Was this a mistake? Should he have skipped it? His school probably requires it anyway, but… sigh.
It looks like this is only for extenuating circumstances, illness, covid stuff, it doesnt seem that you can just choose to use the sat, good thought though!
My son told me there was a timing error on the Psat today. Instructions from the College Board for the test administrators had the wrong times printed on them (5 minutes less for each section). They got it sorted by the second section, but my son said it messed everyone up on the last sets of reading questions, as they raced to finish in less time then they were supposed to have. They then went back at the end of the test and added 5 more minutes on for the reading section but it didn’t really help much to go back to those questions at that point. My son is a high scorer on tests and his school does not have many academic distinctions or awards so getting NMF status was important to him. Anyone know how the College Board approaches these types of situations where it is their error?
D24 said that she ran out of time on a couple of the sections of today’s PSAT.
Found out that she got a 44% on the recent honors physics test. She’s now signed up for physics peer tutoring, which starts during lunch period next week on Thursdays. She just does not understand the material at all. Also am going to have her use some of the high school physics material online on Khan Academy. And if anybody has any recommendations on some good books off of Amazon about HS physics, let me know! She’s also going to attend student hours every Tues after school w/the teacher.
We are headed down to Tucson on Saturday to tour U of A and attend an honors college info session & tour. D24 is pretty excited.
Starting to make plans for our spring break college tours road trip. Need to remind DH to keep his mouth shut and not trash talk all of the out of state schools…if he can’t promise that, then he’s going to be staying home. It’s going to be important for he and I to remain outwardly neutral to D24 while we’re on the tours so she can make up her own mind and not have her opinions peppered by mom and dad. That’s something which is really hard for my DH to do.
Physics is definitely a class about understanding. If she is already having issues I would suggest a real tutor. Now a 44 may not be so bad if the average is low (I still remember college physics classes where my average was in the 40s and I got a B+ in the class). My S just had an issue with a question from his homework and we were able to google the answers and explanations for all of the questions in his text book, you may be able to find that for her too. Good luck!
And good luck with the tours, so exciting!
My husband was a molecular cell biology major at Cal and is a physician. He says physics is the only science that just never made sense in his brain. He ended up taking a class over the summer between Junior and senior year at a local community college to get it done and had a much better experience with it since he could concentrate on it 100%. Our kid’s school offers you an opt out and you can take engineering instead so S24 is doing that.
I told D24 that all she has to do is pass the class. Getting a C would be a success in my opinion. Not sure if a paid tutor will be an option for us so we are going to use all of the free methods that we can. DH was an engineering major in college but he is not a good teacher and when he’s tried to help D24 with her math or physics HW before, they just end up yelling at each other. The textbook is a college physics textbook but it’s a regular honors physics class. And the teacher never assigns any reading out of the book.
How are the kids doing sleep wise?
My S24 who is a Spring athlete (and usually bouncing off the walls) comes home and sleeps from 4-7 (sometimes till 8 PM) and then studies till around midnight and then wakes up by 7:45 AM. He does this several times a week if he doesnt have after school activities. I am alarmed at how much he sleeps when he gets home (this is new) but he does have a very challenging course load compared to previous years. Any suggestions or is this normal? He says its fine.
I guess the question I have then is how long do you think a nap should be? I don’t think 3-4 hours is unusual - especially if getting used to a new, rigorous schedule.
I have a night owl who comes home from school, has a bit of conversation and snack and then naps for 3-4 hours. He then gets up, has dinner and is on the phone and gaming w/friends and or doing homework until 2-3am.
Is your son getting his stuff done? Are his grades good? Is he still being social? What is the issue?
Edited to add: S24 gets home from school around 5 (after practices & activities) most days.
No issues regarding grades or social. Compared to last year his grades have slightly dropped but that was expected because of his heavy course load. He gets on the phone with his friends after waking up to study or play games. It was new for me to see him sleep so much hence asked the question. Thanks for the input that it is normal.
I wish S24 could get the 6-10 hours of sleep in one go…but that doesn’t seem to be his personal circadian rhythm. Instead, he gets 2 cycles of 3-4 hours of sleep. As long as the other stuff remains pretty constant (mood, grades, social life) then I am fairly blasé about when the kids sleep. Can you tell this is my third child?
I’ve got a big sleeper here, too. She’s always been this way. She wakes for the day during the week at 5:15 am. If she doesn’t have something to do after school, she usually comes home and has a snack and then heads into her room for a solid 3+ hour snooze. She then eats dinner with us, does homework and whatever else and is often up until midnight. So, I figure she’s getting her 8-9 hours of sleep each day, just broken up.
Ha! Only if you can tell him to eat breakfast (Thats another battle).
I think he will take on a similiar schedule that your son has once the Spring sport starts. Get home by 6 and sleep till 9 and then be up till 2. Hopefully he would have adjusted to the course load by then.
