<p>S2 took APES last year and got a 5 – he was the only soph in the class and took it because he liked the subject and wasn’t allowed to take it as an IB. (IB won’t let students take IB Enviro and HL Bio, and he knew he was doing Bio no matter what.) He didn’t think it was that hard, but he has always been into enviro science, and he knew a lot of the background material already. It is very interdisciplinary, which suited S2 quite well. </p>
<p>YDS, there is a LOT of overlap between the APUSH MC and the SAT-II. See if S can identify the time frames/topics of the questions he’s missing – it may be they haven’t covered a particular area well, and that’s something he can remediate by reading a chapter or two in a review book.</p>
<p>S2’s calc teacher this semester is awesome – just wish S had been able to take him last semester. He is doing so well makes all of us wonder if he should take BC, but AP Stat is more useful to what he wants to study. Not my decision.</p>
<p>FAP – Keeping fingers and toes crossed for the summer program or that the other gig with the prof comes through.</p>
<p>Yeah, the “decade behind” reference was meant literally not figuratively :)</p>
<p>Apparently WWII takes much longer in AP Euro (which DD took last year as a soph, that’s what they do here) than it does in APUSH since obviously a lot of it took place in Europe.</p>
<p>Last year’s APEuro funny quote was the teacher who, stressed out at their slow pace, kept telling the class “Napoleon has to die before Christmas Break :)”</p>
<p>I feel like such a bad CC mom - I have no clue where my D is in APUSH, and I don’t believe she’s started to study for any of her 4 AP exams yet! She may have had some practice questions for homework, but I’m pretty sure she hasn’t cracked open any of her prep books yet. Same with the SAT II.</p>
<p>RobD - interesting that everyone at your D’s school has to take the ACT - no wonder they allow time for prep. Loved the quote from your D’s AP Euro teacher!</p>
<p>FAP - good luck to your S - I hope he gets into the summer program he wants (odds sound pretty much in his favor, though I suspect most kids who apply to such programs are similarly qualified).</p>
<p>We’re still recovering from our most recent college visits, and I’ll report back about them a little later today.</p>
<p>LIMOM, I bought S a stack of AP and SAT II practice books, and I’m afraid I may be donating or selling them in a few months without them ever being opened. Sigh… banging my head against the wall here…</p>
<p>way to get this topic movin!! I only know what D is studying in APUSH by the books I see lying around. I think they do some thematic stuff also, they switch the book for the nightly reading pretty often. Besides the LBJ book, she was recently reading one called something like FDR- liberalism and its challengers. I remember this book because it was $50 used and it is a dinky little paperback. All you public school parents can smile now. She has about 9 books like these in addition to pageant and she also does her AMSCO book in parallel, especially when studying for tests and DBQs. We’ll see how it goes. She isn’t taking the USH SAT II until June so when the AP is over, I guess the plan can be to do the practice in the big SAT II book and then decide whether to buy the book that will have just one additional practice test in it… </p>
<p>She will also take her first look at the Math 2 prep after APs, we had bought that book before realizing the bogus situation with the repeat tests, but she can do the Math Is as practice also and D2 will be coming up behind in 2 years so it won’t go to waste.</p>
<p>Anyone else taking Latin Lit? I don’t think we can get a big discussion on that one! She won’t study much for that they have been prepping in class, she says only one of the seniors in the class will take the test but they are getting graded on the translations they are doing almost daily so the others can’t slack off. There is one other junior in this class, the teacher calls it AP Latin 2 even though the tests aren’t sequential, he only allowed two of them to change the order to take this the last year it will be offered.</p>
<p>Count me in. It’s been 6 weeks since I asked whether S’s AP World class was on schedule for the test. (At the time, they weren’t.) And I’ve never inquired about AP Stat. On the SAT II front, I just realized we haven’t registered for the June tests (World & French). </p>
<p>The end of “the most important grade” is so close. But with so much to do (and running out of steam) it feels so far away.</p>
<p>oh and my younger D will probably not be destined for APUSH either, although the regular classes have a larger paper to write, the AP will do a scaled down version after the test. Both classes have a lot of work, I would have to look at the grade distributions to see which would be better for her. The AP teacher this year is a one and out, he came just for this year and is now leaving. He isn’t a terrible teacher but he does have his favorites, especially the ones really into the Pres election. They also do some current stuff in researching/discussing current political stuff.</p>
<p>I have something else to mention, but I don’t want to do my three posts in a row thing. I will get back to work and be back here a little later… ACTs…</p>
<p>jackief - forgot to say yay for your D having a prom date! </p>
<p>Just dropped D off at school for sports and asked her what they’re up to in APUSH, and she wasn’t quite sure. OK, that isn’t sounding so great. She’s pretty sure they’ve been doing the Cold War Era, but that they haven’t gotten to the Vietnam War yet. That’s not sounding so great either. I know there are APUSH practices scheduled, but I don’t think she’s been able to attend any because of sports commitments. I’m getting a little nervous now. Not even sure whether her other AP classes have practices.</p>
<p>hmm, D hasn’t cracked an Ap review book yet either. In fact, I bout her the World book at the beginning of the school year and there it sits gathering dust. I have still not bought the Eng. Lang. book and she has not even noticed.</p>
<p>Next week will be killer for D. She will have to make up the work she missed because of Passover and she has a show, so rehearsals are 'till nine every day.</p>
<p>DB, great news on yous S’s ACT score. D has nixed taking it, but I am still pushing because her SATs are still pretty mediocre.</p>
<p>ok I’m back, I guess I’m doing every other post which is ok.</p>
<p>I didn’t think to ask D to checked the ACT site this morning before school, since she was registered yesterday and I didn’t want to be a nag… But I did check myself and her scores are up. I’ll have to mention it to her tonight and do the surprise thing…</p>
<p>She went up just one point on composite, but three of the four section scores went up and I am very happy with these scores. Will have to see if she wants to take in June, it is the day of the school graduation, I am happy for her to skip it. Fall is probably out of question as the Oct? date has been a sports conflict in the past, and by Dec she’ll probably want to be done with tests.</p>
<p>So here are the details and change from Dec
C 32 (+1) E 35 (+2) M 35 (+2) R 30 (-2) S 29 (+5)</p>
<p>I know she will be annoyed at the reading score. We’ll see what her reaction is. I am most happy that the science is now more in line with the other sections, she still guessed on a few at the end (and in looking at her Dec QAS she is not a lucky guesser) but didn’t have as much of a time problem this time.</p>
<p>Congrats Jackie! Those are great scores! I wish my son would take it again to see if he could get his reading up more in line with the others, but he’s dead set against taking it again, and I’m not going to push the effort.</p>
<p>Funny to hear about all the “uncracked books”. Over the years, I have bought those study guides for my kids, starting with my oldest many moons ago - NEVER have any of them been used!! I don’t know why I continue to buy them! Maybe, just maybe, the next kid will see the benefit??</p>
<p>I have passed them along to friends whose kids are taking tests, and I’m sure they aren’t being looked at at their houses either, but at least the dust gathering is occurring somewhere else ;)</p>
<p>and for milestones DB, today is mid term for the last term. In her English elective (a composition class) they don’t have anything graded before this point so she has no idea what her mid term grade will be. Other classes are looking good, so fingers crossed. Will probably get the grades and comments in about a week. Monday the teachers have a professional day where they talk about all the kids and then the comments get written.</p>
<p>I haven’t registered for June tests either, I think the deadline is first week in May.</p>
<p>And what’s up with the May SAT late deadline being extended until today? Could the collegeboard be hard up for $$? Is the world coming to an end??</p>
<p>My guess on why they extended the SAT late deadline? Of course the College Board would like more money, but 'm thinking it’s because the kids taking the SAT for the first time in March are the first group that score choice applies to. So, College Board is giving them more time to think about it since many may have set the June date for SAT II, so the subject tests can be done after the May AP exams.</p>
<p>Hooray, I convinced S to take the SAT on May 2nd! Yes, I paid the late fee, it was worth it, just to get him moving! If he wants to take it again in June, he can. </p>
<p>I will not go through what I did with D#3 (Class of '09 Thread) with the nagging, begging, pleading etc about SAT’s, visiting schools, interviewing & so on. This is the last college search out of the 4 children, I won’t put up with any nonsense like with D#3. That was like pulling teeth or something close to that! There must be many others like her, I am sure. Watch, she will probably proscrastinate on the packing & organizing in August!</p>
<p>What about the SAT II? I’ve persuaded S into a “just incase” approach and having S take the ACT (waiting on the score!), SAT and the SAT II in Chem and English. </p>
<p>My question is this…if his ACT scores are good, does he really need to take the SAT and the SAT II? I’d love for him to be done but if he needs to do it, then he will.</p>
<p>What I heard from DD’s GC was that the SAT enrollments for May were WAY down and so they extended the deadline in hopes of filling up the test centers. </p>
<p>DD decided to take the SAT II in May so as to better line up with her AP test prep on the advice of her teachers so I paid the late fee and took advantage of the extra time. June was going to be a problem anyway with so many other things going on so I suppose it is for the best. The late fee is annoying - but I figure it is just noise in the large pile of fees that are coming in the fall.</p>
<p>As for the study guides - the only way they get used around here is if there is a study group formed and that is the agreed upon text. Otherwise forget it… Not sure when she would have time anyway as she remains incredibly busy.</p>
<p>pmk, one of the schools D is interested in (Dartmouth) requires SAT IIs in addition to ACT. Also, quite a few (up to three at this stage) of the quasi-SAT optional schools on her list will take 2 or 3 SAT IIs in place of ACT or SAT. She has one SAT II done so far and will take two more in June. She will hopefully then have two good scores for Dartmouth and can decide for these others whether the SAT II combo would be better than her ACT.</p>
<p>I feel so bad for the CB for the lower enrollments. NOT! Maybe they should experiment with lowering the price?</p>
<p>DD is taking the SAT IIs only - not the regular SAT. The UC schools require SAT IIs and some of the schools she is looking at will “consider” them if you provide them as part of the package.</p>
<p>I am advising her that optional means do it if you possibly can - the “optional” interview, the optional SAT II scores, etc. My theory is that in a very competitive application process, optional can be the tie-breaker.</p>
<p>How about instead of lowering the price, they offer a one time fee of say $300 for all the SATs and SAT IIs that you want. The fees are annoying - but it is the nickel and dime approach that drives me nuts. Charge me once for the package - and let me move on!!!</p>
I only know what D is studying in APUSH by the books I see lying around. I think they do some thematic stuff also, they switch the book for the nightly reading pretty often. Besides the LBJ book, she was recently reading one called something like FDR- liberalism and its challengers. I remember this book because it was $50 used and it is a dinky little paperback. All you public school parents can smile now. She has about 9 books like these in addition to pageant and she also does her AMSCO book in parallel, especially when studying for tests and DBQs. We’ll see how it goes. She isn’t taking the USH SAT II until June so when the AP is over, I guess the plan can be to do the practice in the big SAT II book and then decide whether to buy the book that will have just one additional practice test in it… </p>
OK, that isn’t sounding so great. She’s pretty sure they’ve been doing the Cold War Era, but that they haven’t gotten to the Vietnam War yet. That’s not sounding so great either. I know there are APUSH practices scheduled, but I don’t think she’s been able to attend any because of sports commitments. I’m getting a little nervous now. Not even sure whether her other AP classes have practices.</p>