The class of 2009 is done ... long live the class of 2010 and 2011

Parents Forum
21

<p>Screen name: kriket (parent)</p>

<p>Gender of Sophomore: Female</p>

<p>Home State: FLA</p>

<p>Preferred Location: Northeast, or at least somewhere cold.</p>

<p>Possiblie interests: math/engineering</p>

<p>Junior year courseload: AP US History, AP European History, AP Calc, AP Chem, AP English, French, Orchestra (AP exam time will be deadly next year!)</p>

<p>EC's: Math club, Youth in Gov., asst. sunday school teacher.</p>

<p>Tried to talk D into a trial visit to a Florida college during the last spring break, but no go.</p>

22

<p>Rising junior S interested in Tulane, Vandy, Wake Forest, Duke, Emory, Rice. Trying to get him to look at smaller schools like Rhodes, Hampden Sydney, William and Lee. Interested in the sciences and Latin. Big 6'5" basketball player with size 14 feet (something went wrong at birth!). </p>

<p>I am curious as to the Xiggi method. Should I search from prior years or was it posted this year. </p>

<p>Having done the whole audition and application thing in 2004, all I can say is I am glad I only have two kids.</p>

23

<p>I'll let Xiggi speak for himself, but in general I think his pet peeve is that it makes no sense to practice with bad questions -- and a lot of the test prep materials out there have questions that are simply not similar enough to the real questions to provide any real help. Practicing with REAL questions is the only solution. I also think he's made the point that some companies seem to think that it's beneficial to use harder questions -- sort of like using a weighted bat to increase bat speed -- and that doesn't make any sense. Learning how to answer a very difficult question that would never appear on the real test seems like a lot of wasted effort. </p>

<p>Of course, using real SAT questions is a little trickier than it was in the past, because in the past you could work through things like "10 Real SAT Tests". But The College Board still puts out sample tests and test prep guides. And the old tests are still good to use to study for those things that haven't changed on the new test. </p>

<p>Xig, have I completely misrepresented you? :)</p>

24

<p>PARENTAL SCREEN NAME: mootmom (moving on to Younger Son)
SOPHOMORE IS: Male
HOME STATE: CA (transplanted from NY in '97)</p>

<p>PREFERRED LOCATION: Would love to stay in CA but says he <em>must</em> have snow, he misses that from his childhood.
SPECIFIC PREFERENCES: Must find a hands-on environment good for kinesthetic learners. Won't wake up for early classes. Needs structured yet supportive environment (ADHD).
ACADEMIC INTERESTS: Computer something, digital graphics, art. Maybe performing arts.</p>

<p>SCHOOLS ON CHILD'S LIST: None. He is the classic brilliant underachiever and won't be looking at "big names" where his bro applied. He is (no surprise) lazy about thinking about colleges, although he reads every college brochure and mailing that arrives for him, cover to cover, so he can't be <em>entirely</em> disinterested...
SCHOOLS VISITED: During brother's search he saw Berkeley, Columbia, MIT, Johns Hopkins. Has separately visited UC Santa Cruz and Davis, San Jose State, Santa Clara, Loyola Marymount, and Washington College (MD), but only informally.</p>

<p>RANK/GPA: School doesn't rank. (Thank goodness.) GPA about 3.0.
JR YEAR COURSES: Spanish III, English III (American Lit), AP Comp Sci AB, AP Calculus AB, US History, Drawing / Advanced Acting (1 sem each).
STUDY PLANS FOR PSAT: Refuses to study, the SATII Math IIC book is still sitting unopened on the table. But he does have a weekly writing tutor whom he insists doesn't help him at all (ha: his English grade has gone up this quarter). He did remarkably well on his practice PSATs this year (189 I think), and did qualify for JHU CTY in middle school with great early SAT scores.</p>

<p>ECs: Dance (jazz; take note, MALE DANCER); plays drums; tech theatre; Robotics team; some community service work (~300 hrs.). Starting on the new water polo team this summer, expecting to participate in improv comedy troupe at school in fall.
SUMMER PLANS: 1 week hiking @ Yosemite; 3 week Economics course @ school (for credit); 3 weeks @ CTY (Electrical Engineering; his final year); visit to Uncle in NJ who is also a drummer; intensive water polo practice. Would prefer to goof off all summer, but that ain't happenin'.</p>

25

<p>Lderochi, that is very good! And, please do not worry about misrepresenting a few of my messages. I cannot claim to be correct on all counts. </p>

<p>Again, I am afraid that I do not have sufficient time to post between now and May 15. However, it is correct that I do not like the tests that are found in most of the self-help books -or used in prep classes for that matter. </p>

<p>It is very hard to learn good reflexes and it does not take much of a bad question to instill self-doubt in the mind of a student. As far as official tests, only the truly dedicated student would ever deplete the availability of GOOD tests. There are 8 tests in the latest official guide and 3 or 4 more that available through the online services of TCB. In addition to this, the preparation booklets for the PSAT and SAT contain valuable information. And then, the old test have no lost their validity as very good preparation tools. The reality is that any student who would go to such a number of past tests should reach his or her potential. </p>

<p>Without getting ahead of myself, here are a couple of important points: </p>

<ol>
<li>There is no Holy Grail of quick fixes for the SAT. It does take time and dedication. A good preparation is a marathon and not a 1oo meter dash. However, it should not require more than the time that could be wasted at any of the organized classes.<br></li>
<li>I consider that for the overwhelming majority of students self-preparation is unbeatable.</li>
<li>The development of sound strategies has to individualized. What works very well for Peter might not help Paul that much! That is why I recommend to buy a few of the strategy books and take them for a spin. That said, there a number of approaches that work for about anyone.</li>
<li>The SAT is an arcane test but it is not only about tricks and traps. There is a definite logic behing the apparent madness, and it is ... highly predictable. It is this rare predictability that eludes the PR, Kaplan, and Barron's of this world. </li>
<li>There are very good tutors available, but do not expect to find them at any of the generic classes offered by the "household" names. The best tutors work for small firms or are part of the elite group of tutors who do the one-on-one classes. If a student had specific needs, no amount of generic help will help. </li>
<li>The more one studies, the better. However, the laws of diminising returns apply to the SAT. For instance, it does NOT hurt to study a list of words such as the Barron's, but it is still an absolute waste of time -except for a few ESL students. Invest -in intelligent practice- 50% of the required 70 hours to go through the list, and you'll gain many times the possible points gained by reading that silly list. In fact, I do not think that there is anything that can be memorized for the SAT! It's all about practice.</li>
<li>You will hear the occasional story about a student who aced it without preparation. I do not doubt that the stories are true, but they have no relevance for 99.99% of us. Take 100 kids who played some baseball to a baseball park and place them in front of pitching machine ... chances are that most will hit the ball and that one or two kids will hit one over the fence. For the homerunners, that's natural ability -or he may have played some tennis, too! Now, replace the pitching machine with a journeyman pitcher who will deliver an armade of slices, sinkers, or other tricky pitches, and nobody will come close to hit the ball. Let the kids practice ten hours and the numbers will improve drastically. That is what the SAT is all about. </li>
<li>Practice makes perfect. Ever tried crossword puzzles or "smart people" puzzles? In the beginning, not much makes sense. Attempt the puzzle for a month and you'll get a BIT better. Now, check the puzzles' solution EVERY day for a moth, and you'll see how easy it gets. As I said before, with the solution in front of me, I can solve ANY puzzle! The truth is that for the SAT, the solution is ALWAYS in front of you -except for the Student Produced Responses or grid-ins. The trick is to recognize the patterns of the test writers.<br></li>
<li>Finally, the test is ALL about judicious time management and confidence. Judicious time management means to correctly predict a "targeted" score. Someone who targets 600 should NOT use his time in the same manner as someone who wants 750+. The importance of recognizing the QUESTIONS early is paramount. And there again goes the need for intelligent practice. Confidence is also key. That is why I advance that the preparation of the SAT hinges on the development of confidence blocks or blocks of knowledge. You start at the bottom and work your way up. With time, the blocks go up faster and faster and the testers no longer fumble. </li>
</ol>

<p>There is a lot more to share, but that's it for today!</p>

<p>PS Forgive the occasional typos, this is done without editing!</p>

26

<p>The Xiggi method has worked wonders for my daughter. Her scores rose 80 points on the math, 80 points on the reading, stayed the same on the writing between the PSAT in October and the March sitting of the SAT I. </p>

<p>She struggles with math so we did hire a wonderful tutor to help her put the Xiggi method into action where math is concerned. He is a terrific tutor who understood exactly what we wanted him to do with daughter ---- he gives her sections of the "real" NEW SAT book to work on, she does them at home, they meet and go over all of the questions, both the ones she gets right and the ones she gets wrong. He makes her explain WHY the ones she gets right are right, which goes along with Xiggi's method. When she took the test, she actually thought the math was easy because she could tell what was required for each question. Practice really does make perfect (well...not PERFECT....but we honestly thought that she would never get above 500!) She's re-taking the test this weekend and has pretty much followed the same method since March.</p>

<p>By the way, we also considered a private SAT tutor who wanted several thousand dollars to basically implement the Xiggi method. We seriously thought about it --- until we noticed all of the grammatical errors and typo's in her materials!!! And, her "specialty" was English! My advice is be very careful if you're thinking about hiring an overall "private SAT tutor." For my daughter, at least, just focusing in on the math with an actual MATH tutor (instead of someone professing to have the secret keys to the SAT) worked very well, at a fraction of the cost. Might be worth it to wait and see how your child does on the PSAT and then plan accordingly.</p>

<p>We did spring for a princeton-review type Test prep class since daughter wanted to give it a try. After three sessions, she said it was worthless because she could do the same things at home (take the test, look at the answers, figure out why the answers were what they were). She skipped the last two sessions.</p>

27

<p>Blumini
suddenly rising junior: daughter
Home state: NY
Preferred location: probably the Northeast, (I'm considering a "day's drive" distance radius)
Location: loves NYC, but thinks Bard sounds goo, too. ;)
Jr. courses at this point: Japanese II, H. English, H. Physics, H. Algebra II, H. or AP History, Art History, various art classes - as far as I know.
Good student - more of a humanities sort with an artistic bent.
Interests: many and varied. :D</p>

28

<p>The "summer plans" addition was a good idea. For my S:</p>

<p>Baseball (county league -- not HS).
Norwich University Future Leaders Camp for two weeks.
Beach for a week (South Carolina)
Walt Disney World for a week -- where his little brother will drive him insane.</p>

29

<p>My thanks for this thread as well! Can't believe that D's sophomore year is coming to a close. D just got her driver's license and took my car to school today for the first time so she could stay later than usual. The fun begins!</p>

<p>PARENTAL SCREEN NAME: mum07
SOPHOMORE IS: Female
HOME STATE: Florida</p>

<p>PREFERRED LOCATION: Northeast or Northwest (somewhere snowy or rainy!?!)</p>

<p>SPECIFIC PREFERENCES: Smaller school (may be difficult with her interests)</p>

<p>ACADEMIC INTERESTS: Environmental chemistry, environmental engineering, chemical engineering, ? I doubt she will end up in engineering but the chemistry and environmental interests appear strong. Much more interested in physical science/math than in humanities or foreign language.</p>

<p>SCHOOLS ON CHILD'S LIST: Dartmouth, Brown, Williams, Middlebury, Bowdoin, Skidmore, Vassar, Wesleyan, Colby, Haverford, ... still need safeties...</p>

<p>SCHOOLS VISITED: Williams (spent last summer on campus), Brown (best friend lives in RI), Dartmouth, Middlebury, Colby (crew camp)</p>

<p>RANK/GPA: School doesn't rank. GPA about 4.1 </p>

<p>JR YEAR COURSES: Depending on summer school results - Spanish III H, English Language AP, Chemistry AP, Microeconomics AP, Calculus AB AP, Graphic Design</p>

<p>STUDY PLANS FOR PSAT: Tutor... (at least for the SAT)</p>

<p>ECs: Photography, Crew (rowing), SADD, Science Club, Math Club, etc.</p>

<p>SUMMER PLANS: Crew camp, summer school - Photography and Pre-Calculus</p>

<p>Many thanks to the many posters on CC who are so willing to share their wisdom! I have learned so much already.</p>

30

<p>Screen name: Runnersmom</p>

<p>Is your Sophomore male or female: Female
Home state: New York</p>

<p>Preferred geographic location for college: Out of NY state;both brothers in college in the midwest.</p>

<p>Any specific things looking for in a college (large, small, urban, etc.): Mid-size with access to urban activities. Or at least that what she says today. By tomorrow it could be different</p>

<p>Child's possible academic interests: Psychology, history, </p>

<p>Schools currently on child's list of possibilities: Haven't gone there yet. We want her to enjoy the end of 10th grade. Having been through this process pretty much continually for the past four years (brothers are Class of 2007 and Class of 2009, respectively) we'd like to slow the march down.</p>

<p>Schools we've visited (whether or not child is still interested in going there): Visited with her brothers during their search: U/Chicago (Class of 2007), Oberlin, U/Rochester,Hamilton, Colgate, Haverford, Swarthmore, Penn, Occidental, UCSanta Cruz, and will see Wash U. (Class of 2009).</p>

<p>Rank/GPA: school doesn't rank (competitive public HS). Attends school with evaluations, no traditional grades.</p>

<p>Junior Year Courseload: AP US History; Physics; Pre-Calc;American Studies (English & Social Studies); Psychology; Race & Ethnicity</p>

<p>Study Plans for PSAT/SAT/ACT: Private tutoring</p>

<p>EC's of Note: Cross country, spring track. Community service No awards or "national" recognition - not into those kind of activities.</p>

<p>Plans this summer: travel;scuba diving;becoming lifeguard certified</p>

31

<p>Posted on Carolyn's junior thread, but this is the right one....</p>

<p>screen name: Karyblue</p>

<p>male/female sophmore: male</p>

<p>home state: So. California</p>

<p>Preferred location: California</p>

<p>Anything looking specific college: urban, suburban, engineering and research...</p>

<p>Child's academic interest: science research,engineering/bioengineering</p>

<p>Schools currently on child's list of possibilities: Cal Berkeley, UCLA, UCSD, USC, possible Harvey Mudd, Cal tech(brother-in-law alumni recommends Cal tech - tough tho)</p>

<p>School visited: CAL Berkeley (to buy sweatshirt), UCLA - Book Festival, USC - shadowed EE</p>

<p>Rank - top 1%?</p>

<p>Junior courseload: AP US history, AP Physics, AP Calc BC, Spanish 4AP or Music theory AP, English 4h, wrestling, and science research. If too much will drop wrestling or Spanish.</p>

<p>Study plans for PSAT/SAT: posted thread on kids study for PSAT? Will take practise PSAT test next week, don't know about plans for new SAT I yet. Son doen't like to prep. </p>

<p>EC's of note: no leadership, minimal volunteer- 20 hours? advance piano, wrestling team, belongs to some science clubs, a couple local awards, AIME freshman year, nothing much else. likes science research. need help here with ec's! </p>

<p>Plans this summer: bioengineering research at UCLA, wrestling practise, Hawaii one week family vacation</p>

32

<p>my error
rank:top5-10%?</p>

33

<p>Screen name (of parent): Papa Chicken</p>

<p>Gender of Sophomore: Male</p>

<p>Home State: Maryland</p>

<p>Preferred Location: away from parents….west or northeast</p>

<p>Possiblie interests: philosophy, psychology, biology, history, literature </p>

<p>Junior year courses planned: AP Chemistry, Precalc (honors), Spanish IV, English, US History, Glee Club (full year, half credit school choir)</p>

<p>EC's: Sports….soccer & lacrosse (lax includes school & club team, all year ‘round tourneys & camps); school’s A Capella group (9th & 10th grade); Comm service…..English as Second language to local Hispanic community; Summer employement….lab technician for ecotoxicology lab last summer, perhaps a manufacturing warehouse laborer this summer; Enjoyment….guitar</p>

<p>College list: nothing specific yet, other than hope to possibly play lacrosse @ Div 3 school (e.g., NE LACs.) Will probably visit a few colleges in spare time this summer.</p>

<p>GPA/Rank etc: A-, overall, school does not rank (private school in Baltimore). Beside honor roll, received National Latin Exam Silver for Latin I & II, and magna cum laude for Latin III, but dropping Latin going forward due to monotony of memorization.</p>

<p>Study plans for PSAT/SAT—Summer study group tutoring for SAT, but not PSAT. Took PSAT as soph & did fine. Taking 2 SAT II’s in June: Latin & Physics.</p>

34

<p>screen name :willsmom</p>

<p>gender of soph: male</p>

<p>home state: CA</p>

<p>preferred location: CA (or at least West Coast), medium-sized university</p>

<p>possible interests: huge Civil War buff, possibly psychology or poli sci</p>

<p>colleges visited: UCSB (sister is a freshman), UCD, UCB, UCI, UCSD, SDSU, Chico State, Cal Poly SLO, Stanford. We found with S that soph visits= junior motivation!</p>

<p>rank/gpa: don't know rank; gpa 3.9</p>

<p>junior year courses: chem honors, span3 honors, precalc, AP lit, APUSH, leadership class</p>

<p>EC's: water polo, swimming, soph and junior Vice-Pres, Key Club. Link Crew (mentor for incoming freshmen)</p>

<p>study plan for PSAT/SAT: Mom will impose a study schedule of practice tests for the summer. Planning on one complete test every 2 weeks, although not in one sitting. Have perused the boards for all I could read on the Xiggi method. Scored 196 on soph PSAT.</p>

<p>Summer plans: Assistant coach for recreational swim team. Only 3 days off allowed, so no other plans (except for SAT practice tests!)</p>

35

<p>My daughter is a rising Senior...but she is already accepted in college. (elon)
A few schools i know of offer juniors extra early admission. Elon has a program called Elon Junior Scholars. You apply in January of your junior year, if you are accepted into the program you receive a scholarship, plus automatic acceptance . You don't have to committ until may of your senior year. I believe Davidson has a similar program. If one of these schools are on your list, it is worth checking out. ....</p>

36

<p>Proud Dad, I sent you a PM with more questions on Elon's program, but in the meantime I visited their website. Looks like that is just for NC residents?</p>

37

<p>Yes, Elon's program is for NC residents. I think the school is trying to attract "locals". I mentioned this, because I'll bet a number of schools have similar programs. We found out about this program by accident, it's not very well publicized. If there are schools you are interested in, inquiring ( or web searching) for special programs for juniors would be worthwhile.</p>

38

<p>My parents aren't on CC, so I'll add myself to the list...</p>

<p>Screen name: thisyearsgirl</p>

<p>Is your Sophomore male or female: I'm female.</p>

<p>Home state: District of Columbia </p>

<p>Preferred geographic location for college: Northeast, possibly California. I might make exceptions for the truly, well, exceptional.</p>

<p>Any specific things looking for in a college (large, small, urban, etc.): Urban or suburban; small (not tiny) to medium size; far from DC; nonreligious.</p>

<p>Child's possible academic interests: Chemistry, English, math, psychology, psychiatry, law, graphic design, and more--my interests are all over the place.</p>

<p>Schools currently on child's list of possibilities: I can't say anything for sure before I've visited, but I'll start with Yale, Harvard, Columbia, Emory, and Pomona.</p>

<p>Schools we've visited (whether or not child is still interested in going there): N/A</p>

<p>Junior Year Courseload: Bilingual (English/French) IB Diploma.</p>

<p>IB Math HL
IB Chemistry HL
IB English HL
IB History SL
IB French A2 SL
IB Art SL
Journalism
Theory of Knowledge</p>

<p>GPA: 6.3 on a 7-point scale at a rigorous private school. Unranked, but estimated in the top 5% (grade deflation is rampant).</p>

<p>Test scores:
PSAT: 214 (October 2004, no prep)
SAT: 660M/740CR/720W = 2120 (March 2005, no prep)</p>

<p>Study Plans for PSAT/SAT/ACT: Prep course held by a local firm, including several diagnostics.</p>

<p>EC's of Note: 10+ years of horseback riding, photography, school newspaper staff (aiming for editor senior year), community service, joining debate next year.</p>

<p>Plans for the summer: Minimum-wage job then a trip to Sweden (visiting family). I would've loved to take a college course, but I could never ask my parents for that much money. Oh, well.</p>

39

<br>


<br>

<p>I asked this question at our school...the answer was simple. School is not in session, there would be no on to proctor the tests. Our school doesn't administer the SAT at all....too much work I guess...to get proctors, and the space at our small school for a whole Saturday. The schools where the test IS administered pay teachers a stipend to proctor the tests. I suspect this would not be an easy task when school is not in session.</p>

40

<p>Carolyn- your experience with the prospective SAT tutor reminds me of an ad I saw in the newspaper a while back - a classified for an english "tudor" :)</p>