<p>I just googled destination imagination - that looks like a blast!!! Never heard of it before but I wish I had because it looks like something both of my kids would have enjoyed. I hope your D has a great time.</p>
<p>RobD - sounds like a great program, thanks for posting the link.</p>
<p>I figured you knew about P requiring 3 SAT IIs, but thought Iād mention it, just in case. My D took 2 earlier, and sheāll take 2 in June, and Iām hoping sheāll be done. She also wants to visit Princeton at some point in the near future. </p>
<p>Will you be coming to NY to watch your D perform? Iām guessing you will be - otherwise how would she get to Princeton? Not sure whether the timing would work for either of us, but it would be fun to meet up - and Iām not the only one here who lives close to NYC!</p>
<p>Yes I am coming up 
The chorus trip is officially 5/29-6/2 and they perform at Carnegie Hall on June 1st. We are coming up 5/27 though so we can visit family & friends before I drop her off in NYC. I will be the traveling gypsy through NJ, sleeping on a different sofa every night.</p>
<p>LI: do you get into the city often? </p>
<p>We are in the planning stages for what we want to do. Growing up 12 miles from Times Square means that you donāt always do the typical tourist things; you know, thatās for the tourists ;)</p>
<p>I think DD is going to try & go to what would have been her HS for lunch on Thursday. That would be very interesting for her I think. She still keeps in touch with a bunch of her NJ friends and weāre staying at her besties house on Thursday night. Friday during the day weāre going to go in NYC early (she doesnāt have to be at the hotel until 5.) I know we want to go to Canal Street to shop, and sheās drooling over going to the Strand used book store. I want to go to the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame annex (but I just found out today that the Clash exhibit closes on April 26th. Oh well.)</p>
<p>Oh yeah, forgot: weāre planning the Princeton tour for Thursday morning 5/28. There doesnāt seem to be a formal way to register for a tour as with most schools. It seems as if you just show up at certain times and off you go.</p>
<p>BengalMom:</p>
<p>I had to laugh when I read āNow where is that Crystal ball?ā scualum understands why.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about the AP Calc BC teacher being out and wish I could lend you my S whoās been helping out his friends taking AP Calc BC this year.</p>
<p>If I may suggest, you might want to take a look at a prep book for the SAT II Math 2 test. Taking AP Calc BC is well beyond what Math 2 requires and a little brush up on prior topics would probably help. The good news with SAT II Math 2 and Physics is that they have a generous grading curve.</p>
<p>FAP and Bengalmom :)</p>
<p>S2 is feeling so discouraged today. Was hoping to spend most of the weekend working on review for AP/IB exams, and instead his teachers have piled on sixteen tons of HW, including the dreaded IB poetry analysis. Poor guy feels he has had no break ā pushed really hard last quarter and got great grades, but was on the road all break and we had a medical emergency with our dog that has occupied much of his thoughts. Now heās exhausted and the Big Push is begninning.</p>
<p>We did get the tux stuff done this afternoon, though, which was fun.</p>
<p>Thanks for the ideas, FindAPlace. So the SAT Math II test is easier than the AP? Thatās a small glimmer of good news. I have the blue Collegeboard book of all the Subject tests, and a Princeton Review AP Calculus book, and an old Barronās book of Dās on the Math IIC. Now, all of these might help S if he actually <em>opened</em> them! :rolleyes:</p>
<p>That is good news about the generous curve. I think heās going to need it!</p>
<p>Today S said another math teacher, who teaches pre-calc, came into the Calculus class and said he would be their teacher until the AP test. Well, I am glad the kids will have a teacher, but it seems too little too late. Guess weāll cross our fingers and hope for the best (or a miracle!).</p>
<p>IB isnāt available in our school - but the more I read about it the more I wonder whyā¦ What is the advantage to IB vs. an assortment of AP and Honors classes?</p>
<p>By the way - that is a serious question and is not intended to be a jab at anyone - I donāt know any school in the area that offers IB and the only real source of info I have on it is CCā¦</p>
<p>BengalMom:</p>
<p>According to my S, the SAT II Math 2 was easier than the AP Calc BC exam but full disclosure on this. Math is definitely my Sās best subject.</p>
<p>IB:</p>
<p>I donāt know much about this either except the snippets Iāve read on CC. Apparently, there are two levels of IB diploma, I think. I also get the impression the IB route has more year ending projects/papers than may be the case with similar AP classes, but this may just be a function of the teacher/school. At least wih APās, kidās can choose which ones to take. Once a student is on the IB diploma route, course selection is more restricted. And as to which program ad comms prefer, I have not a clue.</p>
<p>Advantage? For S2, who is an across-the-board guy vs. someone highly focused on 1-2 academic areas (like his older brother), it was the kind of program he wanted. The social sciences teachers at his IB program are particularly strong, which made it even more attractive to him. He likes the focus on analysis and critical thinking ā itās a different method than AP, but it works for him. </p>
<p>At his school, IBās a selective entry program ā students have to test in, write essays, get recs, etc. Folks who attend are generally pretty committed, since many are forsaking their regular HS and traveling cross county to attend.</p>
<p>IB, as it is done at his school, is more demanding than AP/Honors. S has learned a great deal, loved it much of the time, hated it parts of the time. His biggest frustration is the way English is taught. He pulls perfect English/writing scores on nationally normed tests, but struggles for Bs in IB English. Nevertheless, he refuses to go back to his local HS where heād find the straight AP/Honors diet far easier to manage. </p>
<p>He also takes AP exams, since the vast majority of colleges do not give credit for Standard Level exams, just Higher Level. This is to protect his options for placement/credit wherever he winds up for college. (Not all IB schools have that option.) Some IB programs let students take certificates in some subject areas rather than all of them. The full diploma requires six subject areas, a Theory of Knowledge Course, an Extended Essay and a goodly number of CAS hours (Creativity, Actions and Service). There are no multiple choice exams ā essays only. There are also internal assessments, papers, presentations, oral analysis, speaking proficiency for FL, etc. that go into the final IB score for each subject. These take place over a period of months and are in addition to the exams students take in May.</p>
<p>What do colleges prefer? Beats me. S2 tells people that IB may not guarantee you entrance to an Ivy League school, but it WILL prepare you for the challenges of the most academically rigorous colleges in the country.</p>
<p>My kids never did DI but we did have it in our elementary school. It started up after there was some rift with Odyssey of the Mind, which is a similar program (says the uninformed outsider)</p>
<p>vini vidi vici</p>
<p>Math Level II only goes through precalc/trig. No calculus. One can generally miss 7-8 questions and still get an 800. The Math Level I has a lower degree of difficulty but has a much harsher curve if one makes mistakes. If someone is taking AP Calc now, itās good to go back and review Math Level II to make sure one remembers functions, trig identities, etc.</p>
<p>My non-mathy kid scored very, very well on Math Level II, which he took at the end of pre-IB pre-calc. Earned a good steak dinner with his score.</p>
<p>I was an OM coach for one year until our school system picked up DI. Coached a total of four years for S2 and colleagues and had a blast!</p>
<p>RobD - I donāt get into the city as often as I would like - maybe once or twice a month, more or less. I also grew up very close to the city (in one of the outer boroughs), so itās like home to me.</p>
<p>Sounds like you have your time all accounted for while youāll be in the city - but if you see that you have some free time, let me know. Itās sort of busy this time of year, but we could hit things right - you just never know.</p>
<p>a few pages back, Iām sorry I got too caught up in the engaging LATIN! discussion I forgot to congratulate BengalMomās S on the excellent ACT sco</p>
<p>Thanks, jackief!</p>
<p>CountingDown, thanks for the tips on the Math II. I will definitely pass that on to S, perhaps while I am handing him the study guide. :)</p>
<p>LIMOM, NYC is my very favorite city. NYU keeps sending S large, colorful fold-out brochures, and seeing the photos makes me miss NY even more. I only entertained the thought of S going to NYU for a milisecond. It would definitely <em>not</em> be a fit for him, but itās nice to think about having another excuse to visit the city. :)</p>
<p>My son is in pre-calc unfortunately theyāve been doing calc since February. He was stymied by a not too difficult question in the Math2 review book almost immediately. (Not too difficult means Mom could figure out how to do this problem.) Review may be in order. Nice to know how many he can get wrong though. mathson got an 800, but heās the math guy - S2 is not, though heās doing quite well in math - it helps that he loves the teacher.</p>
<p>Countingdown - thanks for the IB description. Sounds like a very rigorous program.</p>