<p>We’re still waiting on them here. The first day back at school was yesterday. My daughter said the line to sign up to see a counselor was out the door. She knows the counselors won’t have time to think about PSAT scores until at least next week.</p>
<p>If you have been reading this thread, you would know my younger daughter is high strung and leans more toward humanities. She writes for her school paper and English has always been her best subject.</p>
<p>Her current English teacher is not into giving too many small writing assignments or tests. They tend to have big assignments which count a lot toward the grade. D2 was mantaining an A in the class before Thanksgiving. We went away for vacation for a week and she had a big assignment due. She chose to spend very little time on it while we were on vacation. Long story short she got a B, which brought her grade down to a B+ (or she thought). Over the winter break she realized she only had one more writing assignment before end of semester, AND the requirement to do the honors paper is to have a minimum grade of A-.</p>
<p>She went to speak with her teacher as soon as she went back to school about bending the rule a bit. He was in a hurry, so he said, " absolutely not, A- is the minimum." When I came home that night, we could all hear her ranting and raving, “I took it easy for a week, and look what happened. I make ONE mistake, now I can’t do the honors paper, no honors for English, there goes my chance of getting into a college. What happened to second chances? What happened to forgive and forget? Just shoot me.” There is no talking to her once she is all worked up. D1 said she was a psycho.</p>
<p>She clearly was upset the day before when she spoke with her English teacher. Next day the teacher followed it up with her(very nice of him). He said, “It’s the rule, but I didn’t say you didn’t have an A- in class.”</p>
<p>I am not sure if I am going to make it to her senior year. I am having my hair colored more often now (used to be 3 months, now it’s 6 weeks). I don’t know how people have more than 2 kids.</p>
<p>oldfort, my D isn’t as high strung as yours, but close! Having dealt with an older child who is so oppposite, it’s nice to be dealing with too much concern rather than a lack of concern! As a jr, if my son said he had a 95 in a class, I’d be jumping for joy. For D, it means she’s lost “wiggle room”. Apples and oranges, as my husband would say!</p>
<p>Surprise, surprise. My daughter’s school handled out PSAT scores to the sophomores yesterday (but still not to the juniors).</p>
<p>Daughter says she made several stupid math mistakes. She needs to work more on her verbal. She’s more of an ACT person, so overall she’s very pleased with how she did.</p>
<p>She was surprised by the apparent lack of knowledge from the counselors. The kids in her class were told the highest possible score for the test was 236 (instead of 240) and that the counselors didn’t know what the highest possible score was on the individual sections.</p>
<p>Took my daughter to the bookstore to get some outside reading books. She balked at all of my selections - ok, shouldn’t have pushed the “thick” classics, too much. What are your daughters enjoying reading for “fun” that is on the recommended reading list?</p>
<p>There’s a recommended reading list?!</p>
<p>^Our district has one on their website as do most of the English teachers in our school. I’ve also googled for more general recommendations. D’s not the most eager reader. She thinks she “sucks” in reading and writing and that attitude is surely going to affect her chances of improving her dismal PSAT scores. Anyone have the same problem?</p>
<p>lilmom, D2 belongs to class 2013 but she is also not a reader comparing to D1. However, D1 said most of her friends in college are not reader either, so there is hope for D2. Have your daughter signed up for the Collegeboard SAT question for the day? D2 seems to do really well with the reading/language questions and not so well with the math questions. She is usually strong in math so I’m not sure what to make of it.</p>
<p>My son will never read anything unless it is assigned by a teacher AND he is being tested on the content. As for the SAT question of the day…he is not interested. That said, he takes a very rigorous courseload and enjoys the academic competition (literally, he is on the math team). Hopefully he will agree to the SAT prep class this summer.</p>
<p>How many AP classes are your kids planning on taking next year as juniors? My son’s school is very competitive and the top kids here take 5 on average but some take 7 (all AP’s). The only definite AP that my son will take is AP calculus (since honors is not offered and he is currently in precalculus). We are starting to discuss what other classes he may take. I want to limit him to three AP’s/4 honors but it is still under discussion.</p>
<p>^^if D doesn’t show any interest in helping herself, I may strongly encourage her to take an SAT prep class, too. </p>
<p>^D is taking 4 AP’s next year including Bio, Calc and Eng. I’m not sure what the other class is - maybe Span 4. I don’t know if US Hist is AP or honors.</p>
<p>My '12 daughter is taking zero AP classes as a junior. Her older sister took all AP classes junior and senior years, and at least one her sophomore year as well.</p>
<p>D2 doesn’t read for pleasure, while D1 is rarely ever seen without a book or two in tow. In her spare time D2 draws and drums. </p>
<p>I savor books, practically grieve when I am kept from them. I’ve accepted and learned to celebrate D2’s natural gifts and proclivities. </p>
<p>College may not even be for D2. She is definitely taking a gap year. The plan at this point is to apply and defer enrollment for a year. </p>
<p>To jump start her motivation, without asking, I signed her up for a two-session ACT prep seminar. It meets two Saturday mornings at the library where I work. I loved her reaction to the email notification she got. “Um, Saturday mornings? Seriously?” </p>
<p>Yep. Seriously. </p>
<p>Once again, my husband accuses me of caring about this more than she. He’s probably right. Truthfully, no one could be less concerned than the little drummer girl.</p>
<p>Ok, changing lanes here…just got back from driving with first day of learner’s permit. Pour me a stiff one Y Y. How will I ever get to be less nervous???</p>
<p>Yes, we’ve had 2 accidents already, H car is still in the shop. No one is volunteering to take D2 out again, certainly not using their car. I am the only one left.</p>
<p>I was considering more lessons from the driving school to preserve my sanity, but am wondering if it would send a message of no confidence.</p>
<p>DS has had his license for a couple of months now. He’s only had two experiences in the snow though. The first time he wisely turned around and had me drive him. It was much slicker on our hilly, curvy roads than I would have anticipated with a light dusting of snow. I was almost in an accident that morning as someone skid across a lane. The second time was just a light snowfall, and he did fine. I’ll pour you a stiff one anyway though anothermom2 as I still worry every time either of my kids drives. </p>
<p>To answer the AP question: DS will have 3 APS, calc, us history, and Eng, next year and two honors-physics and Spanish 5. Most of the juniors that choose APs at his HS will have 2 APs. A handful could have up to 4 if they started with precalc or a higher math class. This would likely mean taking two science or two math classes though. A few might also elect to take APUSH and AP European History and end up with 3 or more. We found with DD that it worked well over 4 years for her to have one easy class that was continued for 4 years-orchestra. For DS that easy class will be Newspaper/Journalism. He enjoys it, and it doesn’t hurt to have him writing more.</p>
<p>It’s always interesting to me how different HS’s tackle foreign languages. My S’s HS doesn’t offer AP languages, but does offer 6 years of several languages. His older sister took 6 years and received credits for the first two years of college Spanish at her university after testing at the university and completing one semester at a higher level.</p>
<p>D2 did driving school…This is after driving school. To be fair, one accident was due to black ice a few weekends ago.</p>
<p>D wants to start Driver’s Ed to get her permit shortly. I’m dreading it…and delaying until after 1st semester finals.
I am not sure what her schedule will be next year, she loves IB and will likely commit to the diploma program at her school. They have a great program, excellent teachers and a good path of AP then IB HL courses. I would guess 3AP and 3 honors…but that could change.</p>
<p>I don’t think extra driving lessons is a vote of no confidence. In my state, you only need six hours and then 50 with a parent or adult. Nothing wrong with more than six. Driving is one of the most important real-life skills they will ever learn. I think my kids really appreciated the extra hours I paid for.</p>
<p>DS got his permit last March. The weekend after he got his permit we starting prof. driving lessons. He had 6 hours over a two week period and only then, would I allow him to practice driving in my car. He does not drive enough due to time constraints (from his schoolwork…my son does 6 -7 hours a nite of homework) but he does practice on weekends and we purchased an additional 4 hours of driving lessons over winter break (to practice parking and highway driving). He can go for his road test at the end of March. Immediately before his road test we will have the driving school give him a final 2 hour lesson. They take him over to the DMV on a Sunday and practice the road test on the actual course. Yeah, we may over do the lessons here but a teenager can never have too much practice IMHO.</p>