<p>I’m with you. S2’s mid-term test grades were seriously below his grade averages for the semester. You’d think by junior year he’d have figured out how to study for cumulative tests. He felt pretty good about the January SATs (whatever that means) and has not prepared for the ACT this Saturday. Nagging is not an option…so we wait for the wake-up call too.</p>
<p>My ds had a three-weeks’ progress report that is only two points above the level he needed to remain sports-eligible. I hope that was a wake-up call, but it’s hard to tell. I wish some cc boy would come on here and tell us what all they’re thinking – or not thinking.</p>
<p>I don’t know all D’s midterm grades yet, but I do know that she missed getting an A in Honor’s Chem by one point. 
Oh, well.</p>
<p>…and she did get As in both her non-honors classes.</p>
<p>Just stuck my head into the 09 thread… the acceptances and rejections are pouring in…</p>
<p>My instant thought was there we all are next year, rooting for each other, cheering the acceptances and consoling after the rejections… </p>
<p>Hang on - its gonna be a wild ride!!!</p>
<p>Maybe if we search that thread from a year ago we’ll get some answers to the junior dropoff and what to do about it.</p>
<p>Ds just called to say he made the team! I sure hope he gets to play. :(</p>
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<p>looks like a lot of “safety” schools are no longer safeties for a lot of people. I think D better set her sights a little lower.</p>
<p>OK, she is making her schedule for next year and wants to drop French. She is looking into taking AP Human Geography (what is that anyway?) and AP Euro. I told her she would never do well on a college placement test if she is a year away from French, but she said she has plans to take a different language or two in college.</p>
<p>Question regarding my math/science S. He says he wants to take AP Chemistry next year, which is fine with me and I told him. (He got A’s in Honors Chem, A’s in AP Calc BC, and A’s for first semester in AP Physics and Linear Algebra.) Out of curiosity, I asked him if he considered AP Bio. He more firmly told me he’s going to be taking AP Chemistry, but no reasons offered, naturally. This may be because his freshman Biology teacher was the most boring (first period, too!) teacher he ever had.</p>
<p>So, if he’s thinking of being a physics major in college, is it really six on one, half dozen of the other whether he takes AP Chemistry or AP Biology? In case he’d be interested in some multi-disciplinary program in the future, does it make a difference?</p>
<p>Meanwhile, the first semester report card showed nothing about his online Linear Algebra class, although the GC was given the progress report two weeks before grades were due. So I’ve emailed her to see whether, perhaps, it just shows on the transcript?</p>
<p>So I pulled the transcript of student progress that I requested back in November and eyeballed it more closely. There’s some weird stuff on there. For the credit summary, it says S needs 10 credits in, drum roll please, Algebra 1? Huh? He tutors students up to AP Calc. Hmmm … The Linear Algebra is just shown as a Homestudy in the Work in Progress area, with an asterisk. Asterisk denotes, a little horn here please, a non-academic course. Arrrgh!</p>
<p>I may lose my humor about this at some point, and will endeavor to do so when I’m not within earshot of the GC, who we need on our side big time next year to describe the math sequence S is doing outside the HS.</p>
<p>Perhaps they recognize I work as hard for my S’s interests as I do for the district in general as an Ed Foundation trustee. I can only hope.</p>
<p>Having lived through missing class/incorrect info transcript problem last year with my DS, I intended to ask for an official transcript from her GC as soon as the fall grades post. It can take quite a while to get something cleaned up so I figure that for a task for the next few months.</p>
<p>Haven’t gotten D’s report card yet. No surprise since midterms just ended last Friday. I think she’s still doing well, so hopefully no unpleasant surprises will be coming my way.</p>
<p>Not sure what it is about boys! My 7th grade S lost his notebook today. Not sure how he lost it at school, but he did. I’m hoping it’ll turn up tomorrow. He is always losing things, and it’s so frustrating.</p>
<p>Youdon’tsay - which sport does your S play? Congrats to him on making the team, and I hope he gets some playing time too.</p>
<p>Queen’s Mom - that’s scary. I haven’t been reading that thread lately, so I’ll have to go take a look.</p>
<p>FindAPlace - I’ve heard that AP Chem is easier, or maybe I should say less work, than AP Bio (at least for kids who did well in honors chem), and I think it’s a better fit for a future physics major. I’m only basing that on the fact that we have teachers who teach chem and physics, but not bio and physics. </p>
<p>Good luck getting those transcript issues straightened out - stuff like that makes me crazy.</p>
<p>Findaplace, I don’t think it makes any difference. For a potential physics major though, chemistry is almost certainly more interesting and more useful.</p>
<p>FindAPlace – good luck with the transcript. So… Linear Algebra is not an academic class… I’m not looking forward to diving into S’s transcript either. He has taken several summer classes, but there is not room for them on the regular transcript. They also cram standardized test scores on there, also. By the time D graduated her transcript was a confusing mess.</p>
<p>QueensMom, I have been thinking the same thing about setting our sights a bit lower. We have looked at a couple of quite selective LACs for S, and I’m hoping those doors will still be open a year from now. Guess I won’t hold my breath.</p>
<p>FindAPlace - my D, who is intends to major in physics (well, actually astrophysics, but they overlap by about 90%), liked AP Chem a lot more than AP Bio. She likes the problem solving/logical aspects of physics and chemistry. She did not like all the memorizing associated with Bio. Regarding whether your S will need one or the other–if he is considering tech schools, he may need both–many of them seem to require all the sciences first year. I don’t know whether AP scores can place one out of first year courses. My D plans to use AP Physics to place into an honors sequence in college rather than try to place out. She’s not considering tech schools.</p>
<p>It depends on the school - Carnegie Mellon is very generous with the credits (at least if you get 5’s - a little less so with 4s.) Mathson jumped right into a quantum physics course with no problem. I know the computer science school doesn’t require bio and I don’t think the engineering school does either.</p>
<p>I just looked at the list of 2009 acceptances for the first time. (<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061764945-post269.html[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/1061764945-post269.html</a>) </p>
<p>What a nice cross-section of schools! They’re not all Ivies or Williams/Amherst/Duke/Hopkins/MITs! They’re good, solid, regular kids getting into good, solid, regular schools. </p>
<p>I think I just felt my inferiority complex shrink. ;)</p>
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<p>I know we already have BWRK, but I think we should have a new acronym: GSRK. Pronounced like berserk. ;)</p>
<p>What do BWRK and GSRK stand for? I know the RK is regular kid.</p>
<p>He plays baseball. He’s been playing varsity since his freshman year as it’s been a pretty hapless team coached by football asst coaches who don’t care (this is Texas, after all, and football reigns). But this year we have a young, new BASEBALL coach who had hard-core tryouts and held thrice weekly practices in the off season for no HS credit. So, while I was pretty confident he’d make it, it was nice to know for sure.</p>
<p>Following up on what mathmom said- Back when I was an engineering student (when dinosaurs roamed the earth) all the kids in the engineering college had to take 1 sem Chem, 3 sems Physics. Since the Chem class was known as a killer, it would be a good idea for a non-Chem major to place out. I don’t know what the AEP (Applied and Engineering Physics) majors needed to take for additional Chem. I would vote for the Chem also.</p>
<p>YDS, I was going to ask about what sport but LIMOM beat me to it. We are nearing the wonderful season between sports! Last race the state meet next week, and then spring sports don’t start up until April! (preseason at the end of March) Wahoo!!!</p>
<p>I just learned BWRK in another thread recently, I think it was bright well rounded kid. I can’t think of what GSRK is… that is the puzzle for the morning I guess.</p>
<p>GSRK =
</p>
<p>I like it!</p>