Parents of the HS Class of 2014 - Page 131

glido · 10-05-2012, 05:30 PM

DS'14's first SAT in about 18 hours - OMG!

beadymom · 10-05-2012, 05:42 PM

Good luck to Glido's DS and any others taking the SAT!

mathmomvt · 10-05-2012, 06:08 PM

GL to tomorrow's SAT takers!

NewHavenCTmom · 10-05-2012, 08:32 PM

Isn't it nice that this is his junior year... and has plenty of time to improve should he find the scores disagreeable......lets pray that he/and the others... knock this bad boy out the park!

ecouter11 · 10-05-2012, 08:37 PM

Good luck to all your children! If they sleep well and remember to eat breakfast/pace themselves, they'll do great

Apollo6 · 10-05-2012, 09:07 PM

Good Luck to all the students taking the SAT tomorrow and the PSAT in a couple weeks. My oldest daughter took the SAT the Saturday before the PSAT and did very well but it might have made her over confident because her PSAT did not match so she did not make NMF.

Finally skyped with our son in China this week. His host family was in the background and was as curious about us as we were about them. We were amazed to hear our son speaking Chinese and answering their questions. He had had very little Chinese before he left but he is now aiming to pass the HSK level four test by the time he leaves in June. (Kind of like the TOEFL for English language learners) The description of this level is having the ability to communicate fluently with native speakers on a wide range of topics, typically achieved in two years of study (1200 words, 1100 characters). He just might accomplish that. If anyone is interested in his blog, I can pm you a link.

mspearl · 10-06-2012, 06:00 AM

My daughter will not be taking the SAT. Sticking with the ACT and she takes that October 27th. Has not studied a bit. :/ Happy to report she is taking school seriously for the first time and is on track to receive a 4.0 GPA for the first 9 weeks. Hope she sticks with it for the rest of the year. I am rewarding her for her grades in clothing and makeup and that is fine if it gets her a 4.0 - lol.

Good luck to all taking the sat!

Creekland · 10-06-2012, 06:11 AM

I'll add my good luck wished to SAT test takers. We're just doing the PSAT and ACT this month, then will (hopefully) concentrate on either the SAT or ACT for spring. So far, both of my older two boys were better on the ACT. Time will tell with our '14 guy.

ltlltl2017 · 10-06-2012, 07:15 AM

wow. so many parents there....

glido · 10-06-2012, 08:27 AM

"Isn't it nice that this is his junior year... and has plenty of time to improve should he find the scores disagreeable......" - NewHavenCTMom

Exactly! He signed up knowing that he would have plenty more chances, so this is less of a "high stakes" test. Now I've got to make him some breakfast

Good luck to everyone taking the test!

ELKyes · 10-06-2012, 08:41 AM

Hey all, sorry if this has been discussed already, but I have a question. My D14, is signed up to take ACT in April. She is on varsity soccer now, and is having a busy first semester of school. Soccer should end by Nov. So we figured that would give her studying time, and ACT class taking time, to try it first in April. Is there anything wrong with that approach? She can retake it again in Sept of senior year. That should be enuf time for scores to be sent, even if she applies EA to a school? Just want to make sure I am not missing something important. Thanks, any info appreciated

AvonHSDad · 10-06-2012, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ELKyes

Hey all, sorry if this has been discussed already, but I have a question. My D14, is signed up to take ACT in April. She is on varsity soccer now, and is having a busy first semester of school. Soccer should end by Nov. So we figured that would give her studying time, and ACT class taking time, to try it first in April. Is there anything wrong with that approach? She can retake it again in Sept of senior year. That should be enuf time for scores to be sent, even if she applies EA to a school? Just want to make sure I am not missing something important. Thanks, any info appreciated

That seem like a reasonable approach to mo. There is certainly no sense in forcing the test during soccer season when she won't be as focused or prepared as next spring. She could take the test in February and again at the end of the school year rather than waiting until April. That would give her a better perspective of her strengths and weaknesses so she could focus her summer prep work for the fall test dates.

Best success to all taking the SAT!

2016BarnardMom · 10-06-2012, 07:04 PM

In addition to have a Barnard freshman, I have a son who is a high school junior. He didn't take school very seriously until the middle of 9th grade. At that time, some teachers called him out at conferences for working far below his capabilities. They started holding him accountable and he suddenly got motivated to do really well and has had a 4.0 since. He is challenging himself this term with APUSH, AP Bio and AP Psych. He also has Pre-Calc and 11th grade English. Our school only offers 6 AP classes and he will take 5 of them between Jr and Sr years. Thankfully, tennis season just ended because he was going from school to tennis to home for dinner and then spending the entire evening doing homework. He is not a Type A kid like my daughter was and it has been getting to him. He will benefit from the down time after school now.

In Michigan, all juniors take the ACT as part of the Michigan Merit Exam, for free. That's in March. My daughter took it in December so that she could see where her strengths and weaknesses were in preparation for the March exam. She didn't improve much from December to March and THEN took the SAT in June and in October with SAT IIs in there somewhere too. It was all a blur to me..lol. It was the Science part of the ACT that was bringing her composite down. Her SAT scores were significantly better so she never sent the ACT scores in at all.

My son's class was told that they are part of an experimental program and will actually take the ACT twice, for free. Bonus! I guess they're taking it sometime in October. He hasn't prepared at all because this was just sprung on us this week. We're going to consider this a "practice" test to see what he needs to do for March. It should be interesting.

He is scheduled for the PSAT this month too. I'm hoping he just does these free ACTs and the PSAT and calls it a day.

Apollo6 · 10-06-2012, 09:17 PM

Sounds good! I hope your daughter enjoys Barnard. I attended my 25th Barnard reunion in May. The only problem with your son picking up the pace is that he might become eligible for a school as competitive and pricey as Barnard and you might struggle to pay for both. I'm still struggling with the fact that I encouraged my D13 to challenge herself academically to the point that she is eligible for entry at many competitive schools, nearly all of which are beyond my means due to differences in opinion between FA offices and the reality of raising a large family and hoping to retire someday.

ecouter11 · 10-06-2012, 09:36 PM

^At least she is a better student and likely a better individual for all her hard work, which will surely help her later in life. Also, miracles do happen sometimes

I/ many of my friends in the US are trying to get tests done "early" in the school year- so by the end of 1st semester in Jan. so we're more free in 2nd term to visit places or participate in activities that culminate in say March/April/May. This year, I had to juggle my "test run SAT" with AP exams and also a very important activity in May (they all happened in the same 2 weeks! :-o ). Needless to say, it was very stressful and I missed out on a competition I was planning to also participate in then and pulled an all nighter packing for the other activity. No fun at all!