<p>My sophmore D ( transplant from Europe) is A+/A- student. since we moved from europe she is youngest in her grade(14) she participates in all academic competitions - science fair ,whiz quiz, academic quest,geography bee etc.she also got some prizes for writting. All the mentioned activites - she has been upto state level, won some prizes ( not first). for the last semester exam , her class rank is 8. many mothers of her classmates ( who are ranked above her )advised us that she should cut down her " activities " (in Junior & senior years) which will raise her GPA , hence getting into good colleges.
my doubt is - (since I am not familiar with american system ),is junior year is going to be really tough? She has all AP classes,
participating in academic competttions - good or just waste of time?
acc to locals SAT above 2300 & GPA around 4.4 is the only sure thing…Since we are new to the system , I don’t know whether they are giving me a good sound advice or not.</p>
<p>Welcome to CC!
“is junior year is going to be really tough? She has all AP classes”
Yes it will.
“participating in academic competttions - good or just waste of time?”
Absolutely not a waste of time. The longer she continues doing these competitions the more “weight” they will have as EC’s she is committted to. It will also differentiate her from many other students, and possibly give her some meaty topics to discuss in her essays. If she is not also involved in sports, then these academic competitions become her "team"activites, which are important to show on applications. And if she becomes Captain of some of the academic teams that will show leadership. And I’ll be she does great on the SAT’s- after all, her EC’s involve the acculumation of knowledge, and she is learning the ability to respond quickly and under pressure to academic questions- which is fabulous training training for taking the SAT!
Just so you know, only about 50% of HS schools “rank” students these days.</p>
<p>thanks. on the same note, Do all students need to go for SAT prep classes.? here almost 90% started in first year of high school. since we were not aware of the system, D feels she is disadvantged. the prep classes by the way run between 3600 & up for first 21/2 years in this area. she is asking us to send her crash summer courses , (again very expensive).we have got some study guides, Is that okay for good SAT scores?</p>
<p>From what I have heard, colleges here value competitions more highly than European ones do. </p>
<p>I think it is a question of balance. It’s generally considered good to take part in some competitions, especially if you can win awards, show committment, etc, but she does not need to take part in every competition there is. Depending on the amount of time she is spending on these things, it may be more beneficial to her to drop some of them and devote the time to studying, or other types of EC, or just doing nothing at all.</p>
<p>These kind of things are like many other ECs - They look good on her application form, they may help her win scholarships, but in very rare cases will they compensate for sub-par grades.</p>
<p>Junior year can be tough, especially if you are not used to the amount of work APs require.</p>
<p>I would advise your D to take some practice tests, see how she does. She may find it comes very naturally to her, she may not. Then you and she can decide whether it is necessary for her to take prep classes. A lot of doing well on the SATs is about knowing the tricks to answer the questions quickly and accurately, and it should not take 3 years to learn those tricks. Most people don’t take prep classes.</p>
<p>I started to list all the competitions and teams my son was a very active part of in high school, but it got to be a very long list and started to look silly, so let’s just leave it at: OF COURSE it was worth it. He had a blast doing those things. All of them were team activities, many of them involved traveling, some involved building things and inventing things, one won his team a trip to Orlando, all expenses paid, he got great leadership training, he accrued a lot of knowledge and hands-on skills, he got to know a lot of teacher-sponsors, he was very well known at his huge high school, he made friends with the nicest and smartest kids in town, he had a long list of medals/awards/prizes, and I could go on. Those are the activities that made many of his high school memories.</p>
<p>He did all of these (and I didn’t even mention his two main ecs) and took 6 AP courses his junior year. Tough? No doubt, he stayed very busy.</p>
<p>Was it worth it for college admissions? This was not his reason for his choices, believe me. I think it paid off anyway, as he attends a high-ranked university that awarded him a full tuition/fees merit scholarship, and I strongly suspect his very long list of activities had something to do with it. </p>
<p>Was there a rank/gpa trade-off? To the extent he made a trade-off on that score, it was due more to an extremely time-consuming ec, unrelated to the competitions. The scholarship he was awarded generally requires being in the top 1% of the class, and he was not quite that high, but I believe the leadership, team work and energy displayed by the activities list overcame that.</p>
<p>If your duaghter is motivated (and it sounds like she is), studying on her own using study guides or computer software should be sufficient to prepare her for the SATs, in my opinion. The advantage of the courses is that they are scheduled time for the student to study, and many students will never find the time to study otherwise. Both my kids studied by themselves for the SATs and both got scores which reflected their abilities, in my opinion. My son earned astronomically high scores and my daughter earned excellent scores, with very high scores in her areas of strength (verbal and writing) and a very respectable score in her weaker area (math). Both kids raised their scores considerably between the first time and the second time they took the test by spending some time preparing using the study guides.</p>
<p>She can do the “Xiggi method” [ do a search of CC] which involves here taking practive SAT tests multiple times on her own. Another important test in the US is the PSAT, which is administered in Oct of the Junior year [and also Sophomore year at some schools, to give students some practice] A high score on this test [above 98%] can qualify students for National Merit Scholarship $$,as well as offers of reduced or free tuition at some colleges, but as important, it helps identify top students to the colleges they are applying to. There are only 16,000 National Merit Finalists each year, out of 1.5 Million seniors, so prepping for this test during the summer after her Sophomore year is a very good idea.</p>
<p>As for SAT prep classes, no, it is not necessary for every student to take them. I guess you have to know your own kid, but my son had very close to a perfect score with zero preparation.</p>
<p>I have a younger one who will soon need to start taking some of those danged tests. Unless lightning strikes, she won’t be matching her brother’s scores, but I still do not plan to pay for any prep courses. I will buy her a review book or two and ask that she take some practice tests. If she doesn’t, she goes to the schools that admit her “as is”. And that is OK with me, to be honest.</p>
<p>Winning medals at state medal competitions is definitely a good thing. Academic competitions were the only EC my older son was interested in doing. He got into some top colleges and rejected by other top colleges. Honestly they are a lot less time consuming in general than sports or theater - other common extra curricular activities. I agree colleges like to see kids who stick with something they like. She doesn’t have to participate in every single competition, now that she’s tried them all if she wants to drop ones that are less fun that would be okay, but I think it would be fine to do them all too.</p>
<p>Yes, junior year will probably be harder than sophomore year, especially with a lot of APs, but my older son went from taking one AP as a sophomore to three as a junior with no appreciable change in time spent on school work or grades.</p>
<p>As for the SAT, I suggest she sit down with a copy of the Real SAT book, take one of the tests and see how she scores. You’ll have a better idea as to where she stands then. I truly believe you can self-study for the SATs if you are disciplined This thread is a good guide for how to get the most out of a self-study program: <a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggi-s-sat-prep-advice.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/sat-preparation/68210-xiggi-s-sat-prep-advice.html</a> As a sophomore the best preparation for the reading section is to read widely on your own outside of school. My oldest did extremely well on the SATs with no studying. He reads about 100 books a year on his own. (Mostly sci-fi and fantasy.)</p>
<p>My son was in Scholars Bowl all 4 years of HS. It was a huge amount of fun, gave him a community of academically serious students and didn’t take all that much time. He also did drama activities and those were his “teams” as he did no sports. They were also his leadership opportunities (team captain and play director) in Jr and Sr years. He only took 2 APs each year in JR and Sr years (his school offered only 6 total). I think your D could see how it feels doing all those AP classes and other activities and if she has to cut down, she can hold on to her favorite ECs.</p>
<p>Agree with tli83</p>
<p>Have her try a practice test for SAT and ACT. She may not need prep courses. Most kids who love being quizzed and can perform well under timed conditions are already good test takers. My son did exremely well with no test prep.</p>
<p>thank you all for your eply. we got the blue book with that book She scored 232 / 240 In PSAT this sophmore year. Her only trouble is occasional spelling mistakes ( she sometimes go into british english instead of american spellings). we will try xiggi method & see how that goes.I am glad that I stumbled upon this web site.</p>
<p>Peparing fully on one’s own or taking a prep course will not make every student achieve perfect scores, but will allow the student to get the scores that he or she is capable of. </p>
<p>Midmo’s son is obviously very talented since he achieved almost perfect scores with no preparation. The point I was trying to make is that most students will not achieve perfect scores without preparing, and not every student who prepares to the fullest extent will earn perfect scores. However, preparing adequately will help students to raise their scores to a level which accurately reflect their abilities.</p>
<p>Oh heck, with THOSE PSAT scores you D has nothing to worry about! Relax! Don’t put pressure on her to study for the SAT’s!!! She will do GREAT!</p>
<p>I agree with menloparkmom. She is set for the SATs. </p>
<p>Americans can’t spell, especially those younger than 40 or so, so there is no disadvantage there.</p>
<p>Judging by the spelling on CC, most Americans do not know how to activate spell-checkers, either.</p>
<p>Your daughter is in great shape.</p>
<p>Those are amazing PSAT scores, especially considering that your daughter is a sophomore this year.</p>
<p>she started worrying when ( we live a neighbourhood where everyone compares the scores)she found out so many got near perfect scores in PSAT. we felt that it is too much pressure on kids when one expect them to score perfect scores in all exams. but at the same time we feel that she should not feel left out because of our ignorance of system. I can not wait to convey her all your suggestions.</p>
<p>I didn’t realize she had great PSAT scores. Really you have NOTHING to worry about. Though I will caution you that her SAT scores, might be a little lower. My son scored 235 twice on the PSAT, but got a considerably lower score on the SAT writing because of the 25 minute essay. Note though that spelling is not something that counts against you on the SAT essay.</p>
<p>Welcome, Leicestermom - the academic competitions are fine, if she enjoys doing that, she should continue. Scholars Bowl and band were my D’s main ECs, and she did fine. With ECs it seems to be most important to participate over several years, and hold leadership if possible. Most of the leadership positions at her school were popularity contests, except for sports, so the fact that she was Scholar Bowl captain her senior year was important.
Part of the EC “thing” is to differentiate yourself, to stand out from the group and to show how you would contribute to the community of individuals - when application time comes, one thing will distinguish her is coming from GB as a soph - that experience might make some good essay material.</p>
<p>As for the SATs, I think everyone needs a little prep, not necessarily to raise the score, but to get the mental muscles ready for the long test. The writing also can be a problem, often for otherwise good writers. The Xiggi method of studying on her own should work fine - she just needs to practice for the test, not relearn vast amounts of material that she didn’t get the first time.</p>
<p>As far as the PSAT goes, all scores above a state-specific minimum are good for semi-finalist (and finalist) stage. No state is as high as 232. I don’t really know if the actual score on the PSAT comes into play for those who receive the one-time National Merit scholarship ($2500) directly from the NM organization. The actual score is not used to determine college-sponsored national merit scholarships, as far as I know; you just need to be a finalist.</p>
<p>OP</p>
<p>Watch out–you may not be so glad you stumbled on this site when you’re still here 6 years hence. Ha.ha.</p>