<p>Thanks all for answering the question about the essay prompt - sounds like everyone had the same one. </p>
<p>abasket - I checked on their web site, and ACT says the multiple choice scores will be available between 12/29 and 2/6, and that writing scores will be available within 2 weeks of the multiple choice scores. They say to check back weekly if your scores are not available on the first day they become available, and that scores are processed and added weekly on Wednesdays and Fridays, and that all scores should be ready within 8 weeks! Eight weeks! That's so far away!</p>
<p>S just called about 10 minutes ago. He and friend had just finished brushing all the snow off the car with sleeves and bare hands. No snow brush in the car. My bad.
He said the test was ok, but that science was insanely hard, and the questions were very disorganized on the page, hard to find which graph or chart the question referred to, etc.<br>
Anyway..... glad it's over, at least for now. I will pass on your comments that the science section was crazy for many kids.</p>
<p>BengalMom - the science section sounds scary! Haven't heard D's thoughts on it yet, but will let you know tomorrow.</p>
<p>Hope your S makes it home safely through the snow. Oops to the no snow brush. I've had that happen to me before, and it's no fun. Which reminds me - my scraper is broken, and I need to replace it.</p>
<p>I think we're all glad this is over for now. We'll have a few months reprieve as D won't be taking another test until March at the earliest. If her SAT needs to be redone, that can wait till then, and the ACT will have to wait for June, I think.</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2, Thanks, he made it home ok. Luckily the snow has stopped because he still wants to drive downtown tonight for the dance, rather than have H drive them. If it doesn't snow any more I suppose we will let him. Living here, you have to learn how to drive in it sometime, because you will definitely be driving in it often in the winter.</p>
<p>Your D took the SAT already this year? I had never even heard of taking the SAT before the PSAT until I joined CC. I have certainly learned a lot here about how many other parts of the country do things! Too bad I didn't know about CC when I was going thru all this with my D. It would have been nice to feel not so alone. </p>
<p>I had originally thought S would take SAT in March for the first time, now realizing that is pretty late, esp. for taking a re-do later. He is fine with taking it in January, in fact today after he got home (from the ACT) he was asking when his next test would be. We talked a bit about it and he said "why not take them as many times as possible?" I almost leaned over and felt his forehead for a fever. :) I think there may be a glimmer of light in this college preparation/search/application tunnel!</p>
<p>BengalMom - no, D took the SAT last Saturday, not before taking the PSAT. I did register her before I had her PSAT score though. And we did receive her score just over a week before the test, but she had no time to do any more practices. I already knew her biggest weakness was her vocabulary - not that you would know that from talking to her, or from reading her writing - but I know it from living with her. Anyway, I had purchased some vocab study guides recommended here on CC (forgot which thread), and after she got her PSAT scores, she at least looked at those books. Can't say whether they helped or not yet - and she didn't spend that much time with them anyway. </p>
<p>Nice that your S doesn't seem to mind taking all these tests - I think D's coach would have a fit if she missed one more meet due to a standardized test this season - that's why she'll do the next round, if necessary, during the spring. I really hope that she did well enough to make her happy on at least one of these two tests so that she won't have to do a retake.</p>
<p>Oh, and I had her take the SAT in December because someone we knew from her school did so her junior year, and it worked out well for her.</p>
<p>Hope your S has fun at the dance tonight. D's school doesn't have any dances - except for one sponsored by Model Congress, and of course the senior prom.</p>
<p>D and I discussed the Jan SAT pro/cons yesterday. It was originally part of the plan, then she was liking the ACT and thought no, I wanted to know what she thought now that the ACT is over. She still thinks she has potential to do better on the ACT, maybe not this past test sitting but in general with more studying (and more luck with a more decent science section :) )</p>
<p>So at this point, and not knowing what is up with score choice, we are bypassing Jan SAT. She may take ACT again in Feb but that would mean travel to a center an hour+ away from us as it seems to be offered at fewer locations. I'm wondering if one of the sites cancelled yesterday might offer a Feb date instead. If not, probably June, although she would miss the HS graduation where the choir sings, she can get out of that. Apr she will have a sports conflict.</p>
<p>so when I was telling D about how all these other people thought the science was hard, I showed her the ACT subforum and she looked through some of the comments. I couched it MANY TIMES, with "these are not real normal people, don't be worried by what you read. She couldn't believe the number of posters with the details discussing the questions etc after the test, she said she didn't remember all those details (we went shopping right after the test, it was several hours later) </p>
<p>But she was a bit intrigued by the level of involvement here by students, I told her I usually hang out in the parent area (where we also aren't real nor normal) </p>
<p>She knows I have gotten some college info her also, she might start checking out the site, maybe the test sections before the tests. I don't expect she would be a heavy user, facebook is still her number one time-sink :)</p>
<p>jackief, My son is probably not taking the SAT. My son likes the ACT a lot better and most people on CC have convinced me that you do not need scores from both. LOL, coming from the SAT country, I feel "guilty" that he not taking the SAT.</p>
<p>Good morning. Spoke to D a teensy bit this morning, and she agreed that the science test was harder than the practices. She said that she found it very long because she really had to read everything and couldn't make inferences. In the end, she had to bubble in the last two questions. She said the rest of the test was "ok," but she's pretty sure she made one stupid mistake on an easy math question. She thought that about the PSAT too, and ended up getting a perfect score on the math. Dare I hope? Probably not.</p>
<p>Jackief - I don't think I could pay D to come to this site on any kind of a regular basis. After she took the Bio SAT II, I showed her the site where the kids were discussing the test, and most of the questions they were discussing were the questions she'd had problems with too - so she brought them to her teacher and the dept. chair, and they told her that she would learn that stuff in AP Bio. Why encourage the kids in Honors Bio to take the exam then? She got a 730, so I was satisfied with her score, but she was disappointed. I'm sure they were very impressed with her memory, because she didn't tell them that she got many of those questions from CC kids.</p>
<p>northeastmom, yes SAT country here also, but our school encourages kids to try both. She will still need to focus on SAT IIs as several schools require them in addition to ACT, which I wasn't aware of. Maybe she'll reconsider SAT I after getting her scores back, maybe not, we'll see. She is just glad to be off the test treadmill for now.</p>
<p>Well, the ACT is really new to our school. My son liked the PLAN better than the PSAT so he just began to self prepped for the ACT. I still feel guilty that he is not taking the SAT but he really does not want to prep for that test too. He is not taking SAT IIs because the schools that he is going to apply to do not require them. He just feels more comfortable with the ACT than the SAT. I just hope that it won't matter when decision time comes.</p>
<p>northeastmom, don't feel guilty. If your S can avoid the stress of SATs, you both should count yourselves lucky. :)</p>
<p>I haven't actually sat down with S's preliminary list of schools to see which tests they each require. But he always planned to take the SAT IIs that correspond to the 3 APs he is taking this year (Chem, CalcBC, and USHistory), as well as Spanish, so that would cover any that he needed. He wants to take the SAT and ACT a few times so he will next to the January SAT.</p>
<p>BengalMom - those 3 APs should be fine for any school he applies to because you have a math, a science and a history. Not sure if he's planning to go into engineering, but most of those schools will require math and either chem or physics, while some will require a third. There really isn't a need for him to take the Spanish unless he thinks his grade will be higher than any of the other tests. I would recommend that he take a practice Spanish SAT II just to see how his grade turns out, as the grades on that test tend to be lower than expected. I remember you said he went to a school that had a Spanish and Japanese immersion program, but I would still have him take one practice test, just to see how it turns out compared to the others.</p>
<p>So far, my D has taken the Bio E (730) and Chem SAT IIs (740). She wasn't happy with those scores (I was!), but I think they'll be lower than the ones she plans to take this year - Math II, US History, and possibly Physics. She absolutely doesn't need to take the Physics exam, but she may feel compelled to take it anyway. I'll find out when we get closer to the sign-up date as she plans to take the subject tests in June.</p>
<p>northeastmom - we had no experience with the ACT before yesterday either. I just knew from going to the college info sessions that she should take the test with writing. Her school doesn't offer the PLAN test, so this was her first exposure minus the practice test she took from The Real ACT Book. She said nothing about the English or Reading sections, and just said that she knows she got one wrong in math and that the science section was long and she had no time for the last two questions, so she filled in the bubble. She always finishes tests early, so I was a little surprised (though not nearly as surprised as I would have been if I hadn't read all those other reports here on CC).</p>
<p>Limomof2, for the ACT you need to move quickly, at least at a faster pace than for other standardized tests. My son thought that the English was slighly harder than normal, the math and reading were about average in difficulty, and that the science was hard and not like the practice tests in the Real ACT book.</p>
<p>D told me just a little while ago that she found the English, Reading and Math easy (though she's pretty sure she made a stupid error on one of the easy math problems). She agreed with your S about the science - though she had only taken one practice test in the Real ACT Book. She said yesterday's exam required more thought than the one in the book. She has never run out of time during a standardized test before, so I'm sure it came as a shock to her. Glad she only had 2 problems left.</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2, sorry, no language immersion programs here. Good advice to have my S take a practice Spanish SAT II -- we will do that. I really don't expect him do do very well on it because he really doesn't enjoy taking Spanish, and the instruction he is receiving is barely passable at best. He is in Spanish 4H, but I'm sure he could not match students in a similar class elsewhere. The only reason he will take the SAT II is to (hopefully) satisfy the language requirement at a couple of the schools he is looking at, so he doesn't have to take more language in college.</p>
<p>Your D's SAT II scores are great! Boy, she sounds like my perfectionist D back in HS. College has been a humbling experience for her. :)</p>
<p>Bengal, if the only reason to take the lang SAT II is for college placement, he should wait until next June to take it, or next Nov if he wants to take the "with listening" version only offered in Nov. June would be after he has decided on a college and will know if it would be usable in the specific situation, and after Sr year APs are over, if he is still in the mood.. If he is taking 3 at the end of this year, taking in Nov would give him an opportunity to retake one other if he desires. But definitely go with the strong subjects first and then add in the lang later if it won't be used for admission but only placement.</p>
<p>Thanks jackie. He is planning to take the SAT IIs that correspond to his 3 APs in May, then take the Spanish test in early June when he's had as much Spanish as possible. and he will not be taking Spanish next year as a Sr, so really has to get this test out of the way this year, if he does indeed take it (we'll see if he bombs a practice). He is so done with Spanish that there is no way I could stretch it out till next year. If it doesn't work out, that's ok, we'll deal with whatever happens. </p>
<p>We previously hadn't planned for him to do the Spanish test just because we knew he was not getting a good education in it and would probably do poorly. But he and I visited Pomona College in October and fell in love with the school (danger, danger), and were told the various ways you can test out of their language requirement, including getting a 650 on the SAT II (without listening, I believe), so he thought he might as well try. I need to confirm that. Of course, we know that Pomona is a crap-shoot school, and we are going in to this with eyes open.</p>
<p>BengalMom - if your S is not a strong Spanish student, and his classes aren't that great, I would definitely have him take the practice test first. Even really good Spanish students are lucky to get 650s from what I've heard. </p>
<p>BTW, sorry I mixed you up with another mom of a 2010 S - someone in California, I believe. I realized that after I wrote it, but forgot to go back so I could apologize. </p>
<p>So, your the mom of a perfectionist D as well? It's not easy, is it? As I said, I was very happy with her SAT II scores, and she was ready to retake them. I wouldn't let her as I'm almost 100% sure that her math and US History SAT IIs will be better as those are 2 of her best subjects.</p>
<p>Better? Boy, she doesn't have much room to improve! :) I <em>so</em> remember my D going through all this. Her brother is quite different, so it's a bit like starting over. But it's all a very exciting ride and I love it.</p>