<p>astromom – yes, my S hates the essay also. He will be taking the SAT tomorrow, and I could only get him to do one practice test, and that was last weekend. And he <em>refused</em> to do the essay. Sigh… so much for practice!</p>
<p>It will be interesting to see how it all turns out. Good luck to all of tomorrow’s early risers! :)</p>
<p>I “heavily” suggested to my S, who’s taking the March SAT, that he avail himself of the Mock SAT, put on by the PTSA on Jan. 31. I exponded on the important of doing some prep test under more real test conditions, since he’s doing self-prep. And he agreed, yesss!</p>
<p>He’s also got his behind the wheel driving test next month and is looking in good shape for that. I’m sure he’ll be pleased with the bit of extra independence that will bring.</p>
<p>He’s got his last final exams today. Yesterday, he told us, interestingly enough, that the AP Physics exam only took half the period.</p>
<p>Monday is a “pupil free” or “teacher development” day, so we’ll be doing the UCLA campus tour in the afternoon. We REALLY need rain in SoCal and got some today. I am going to chuckle if we get more rain for round two of the SoCal tours, having got wet during the USC one in December.</p>
<p>Mommusic, sounds like mathson. He routinely got Bs on papers and As on tests in his history courses. In college the papers seem to count more and/or there are more of them. He’s got a B in his history course - though mostly for handing them in late apparently. :rolleyes:</p>
<p>I wish my D was interested in a couple of local schools so we could get cracking at college tours. But she has made it clear that an hour away is too close to home. I can relate though. I enjoyed venturing out on my own.</p>
<p>Good luck to all the SAT takers!</p>
<p>S is taking SAT for first time tomorrow as well. Hopefully it will be one and done. He is only taking it for NMF purposes ~ he’s using the ACT for college application purposes. He has taken 4 full practice tests in the CB blue book. He says the time constraints are not nearly as bad as the ACT - plenty of time to review the questions when he gets done. The math section is going to have to pull him through (he got 800 on one of the practice ones and mid to high 700’s on the others). He also is a decent writer but not when given only a half hour to compose a paper.</p>
<p>He was mildly disappointed that he ended the first semester of school with his first B. He needed one more point on the final to get an A and unfortunately his teacher docked him 8 points for failing to underline his thesis statements on his essays. We challenged the teacher on it as they are allowed to use their judgement, but he felt it was necessary to teach our son a lesson about following directions. Unfortunately this is a student that has never had a problem following directions so it was a really big lesson. There went the number one class rank. We are hoping that this doesn’t result in getting lazy this semester since the 4.0 uw is gone. </p>
<p>Good luck to all the kids taking the SAT tomorrow. I will be interested to hear what they think when they get done.</p>
<p>MIne is taking the SAT tomorrow also. He’s had midterms all week … a funny combo of test prep, test stress, and a little free time. At least no homework this weekend – and then off to Model UN next weekend.</p>
<br>
<br>
<p>Holy Cow! Is this a high school teacher or an Old Testament God?</p>
<p>ellemenope ~ this is the same teacher that gave just one class a pop quiz on Romanticism in the period after they finished the PSAT exam ~ which S proceeded to get an F on (the only F he has received on anything in high school). Again had the teacher had a little mercy on this quiz score the 8 point deduction wouldn’t have been an issue. Needless to say we took it as far as the principal and decided not to push it any further.</p>
<p>It is a Catholic school ~ maybe he is Old Testament God.</p>
<p>mom2010grad - sorry to hear about your son’s unreasonable teacher. My D messed up a little this week as well. She got thrown by the day off on Monday, and mixed up the days, so she left her math binder at home on Tuesday, and that was the day of the “notebook check.” She brought it in the next day, and her grade was reduced from an A+ to a B+. Her teacher did tell her it doesn’t count as much as a test, so she felt a little better. </p>
<p>Good luck to all those taking the SAT tomorrow!</p>
<p>I don’t know if S2 is interested in local schools, but I was thinking we might take him to Vassar and Bard over Feb break as they are day trip distances away. Just to get him thinking about what he might or might not like. I’m not wedded to either place. He might well prefer something more urban.</p>
<p>That sounds like a great plan, mathmom. Two great schools, and not too far away - you’ll have to let us know what he thought of them after your visit.</p>
<p>Dropped D off at her SAT this morning. Luckily, I read her admission ticket early this morning - it was at a different school than I expected - one just a little further away than the one I picked as her first choice.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, before getting into my car, I fell twice on the ice in my driveway! All the ice must have melted off of my roof yesterday and ended up in the driveway, and then froze over during the night. Now, my knee is swollen and my hip hurts - I feel like an old lady thought I’m only in my mid-forties! On top of that, I was soaking wet and we were running late (thanks to it being at a different testing center), so I had to drive there and back in soaking wet jeans. Not a fun start to my morning!</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2 ~ sorry to hear about your fall (twice). Thank goodness you didn’t break any bones. Make sure you put ice or heat (can never remember which it is) on your knee and hip. Hopefully you won’t stiffen up so that you can’t drive to pick D up in 4 hours when the test is over. It is below zero here this morning. Made S a nice breakfast before going out to warm up his car and scrape the windows. Fortunately the test center is only about 5 minutes from our house ~ I assume he made it since I didn’t hear from him. Good luck to your D and I hope your injuries heal quickly.</p>
<p>Ooh, LIMOM, sorry to hear about that. Glad that you read that ticket, though, and hopefully all the luck will be with your D this morning! (And it’s ice for the first 24 hours to reduce swelling, then heat.)</p>
<p>Thanks Booklady and mom2010. I’ve been putting ice on my knee, but not the hip (not quite sure how I’d manage that). I’ve been getting up every half hour or so to walk around a little since I have nobody else to pick her up this morning - can’t let myself stiffen up too much…lol. Then it’s back on the couch with my leg on a pillow and and ice pack on the knee. </p>
<p>D didn’t eat anything before the test - she had a stomachache since yesterday afternoon and was considering not even going in to take the test this morning. She decided to go anyway - hopefully, that wasn’t a mistake.</p>
<p>And mom2010 - poor you in below-zero degrees - it’s not that cold here - and that’s sort of the problem. We had a good amount of snow earlier in the week. Yesterday, it all started melting, but then froze solid overnight. This morning, it was starting to melt again, but that just made the ice extra slippery.</p>
<p>LIMOM – glad you are okay. You might try some ibuprfen, too, it might help keep you from getting too stiff.</p>
<p>mom2010grad – the same thig happened to my son last trimester – his first A-. There goes the 4-point and the #1 ranking. Oh well. We’re moving on…</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2:</p>
<p>See if your D can give you some appropriate pampering of that hip and knee later today.</p>
<p>I an thrilled to see the rain outside, even though my dogs are bummed (no dog park visit) and the CA drivers who have no concept of hydroplaning need to be avoided.</p>
<p>My S came home last night and said he was so zoned in to finals week that he forgot to send in one APUSH assignment. He said he already emailed the teacher. I said we’d scan and email the work to the teacher this morning. I’m pretty sure he’ll be lenient about it, especially since he knows S from being the Mock Trial advisor.</p>
<p>BengalMom ~ in the whole big scheme of things we know the B doesn’t matter (we don’t have + / - at our school). We were just a little frustrated with the inconsistency among teachers. We know of at least 2 cases this semester where kids were given more than one point to move them up to an A. We had heard things about this teacher prior to taking the class so we weren’t totally surprised by his refusal. Is your S taking the SAT today?</p>
<p>Yes, he is mom2010grad. He left about 6:50 to drive himself there in the dark and the rain. I offered to give him a ride so he could just relax, but he loves to drive and be independent. Had to drive about 16 miles up to the state U – nothing closer. </p>
<p>We have only 2 testing locations to choose from for the SATs. Do any of you have a similar situation? One of ours is the state U about 16 miles away, the other is a small state U about 25(?) miles the other direction. None at HSs. The ACT was offered at quite a large number of HSs within a 15 mile radius of us.</p>
<p>I know the one lower grade (so far) doesn’t really matter, but he really did enjoy having a 4.0. He is having a bit more trouble with AP Calc BC this trimester, so I hope he can pull that grade back up to where he wants it.
So sorry about your unreasonable teacher. I guess that’s just one of those life lessons our kids get to learn – that life is not always fair, and there will be difficult people along our path. Don’t you just wish you could tell colleges about him? :)</p>
<p>BengalMom - the ironic thing was, I had taken Advil before leaving to take D to the test because my knee had been bothering me! Just took another dose, so thanks for the reminder.</p>
<p>Wow about having such limited options for the testing centers. It was still offered at local high schools (not D’s, unfortunately), but she didn’t get assigned to the one we had requested - even though that’s the site that appeared on her confirmation email. The admission ticket had another school - the same school where she took her ACT - so, not too bad.</p>
<p>FindAPlace - unfortunately, my D is not the typt to give me any pampering at all. And she went to take the test with a big stomachache - maybe from nerves, but it started at school yesterday and never went away, so I’m not sure. It didn’t stop her from eating dinner or having a mango for a snack later in the evening, so I wasn’t that concerned.</p>
<p>BengalMom/FindAPlace - do the high schools by you usually have more than one valedictorian? I was thinking that might be really common when your kids get letter grades or grades on a 4.0 scale. At my D’s high school, since the grades are out of 100, there’s a lot of variation, down to the third decimal point, when they’re figuring out the highest GPA.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>cpn55, it sounds like our kids are on the same schedule. D is taking the SAT’s this morning, after a week of major exams in school, and then she’s got Model UN next weekend, as well. (Good luck to all who are in the exam today!) With her exams this week, she didn’t really have time SAT prep, although she did manage to get in a decent amount of practice time in over winter break. </p>
<p>BengalMom, that’s a shame that your testing location choices are so limited. We’re fortunate that, for both the ACT and SAT, we have a few different choices within a reasonable driving distance. </p>
<p>It would be great if this SAT sitting could become the “one and done”, but, if not, then she’ll probably re-take it in June; The May sitting will most likely be for the SAT II’s. According to D, a number of kids at her school are skipping today’s exam and waiting until March, when the superscoring goes into effect. However, I thought that it would be better to take the exam in January and space out the sittings to allow for any re-takes, SATII’s, etc. After taking the ACT for the first time last month, she swore off that test for good, so it’s going to have be the SATs for her.</p>
<p>We haven’t done any college visits for a while, but that’s going to pick up a bit, beginning in a few weeks. From scanning the last few pages of this thread, I saw Emory mentioned. D has become quite interested in Emory, particularly their Creative Writing program, so we’re going to head down there in a few weeks for a one day visit. Has anyone else visited there yet? If so, any suggestions on where to stay for the night? Also, it looks like we’re going to visit SUNY Binghamton. From everything that I’ve read about Binghamton, and its reputation for bitter cold winters, this visit may be crazy but, then again, D might as well see what Bing is like in winter; if it’s too much for her, better she should find out now. The bulk of the remaining school visits will probably be over her spring break.</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2: Take it easy and I hope you feel better. H slipped and fell, as well, on some “black ice” on our walkway today. I’ll be glad when it’s all melted away.</p>