Parents of the HS class of 2010 - Original

Parents of HS Class of 20xx
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<p>A three may be considered passing, but mathson at least applied to schools that only gave credit for 4’s and 5’s and some that only took 5’s - so we’d have liked to know. Luckily mathson is really good at standardized tests and aced them all. S2 thought he’d failed World History last year, but got one of the few 5’s in the class. And he was not one that the teacher predicted would do well. </p>

<p>I think APUSH is so common because US History is required by just about every school in the country. In our school any bright kid takes it. I’m not sure if they even offer Honors. Our APUSH isn’t as hard as the AP Euro, whose teacher requires something like 6 research papers. (US only had one - way too few in my opinion.)</p>

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<p>At our school, it’s typical for bright students to take AP Euro History as their one and only AP class as a sophomore. It’s quite a tough one to take as an AP “rookie.” My S says AP US History is easier since he’s more interested in it and is now well acquainted with DBQs and other presentations associated with AP history classes. Plus, the AP Euro History teacher is a bit of a task master (and I think she has to be to get the kids through it) while the AP US History teacher is a tad more laid back, personality wise. Typically (with class sizes running around 520-550) there are three class periods of AP Euro each year, and 4 or 5 of AP US History.</p>

<p>I am hoping our temps will drop to 88 as predicted today. A 95 year temp record was broken yesterday and downtown LA hit 9 degrees. My son said they got hot during turnouts in the pool, which isn’t the first time but hasn’t been common either. I had to laugh. I told my S that the student bulletin commented that, even in the hot weather, students must follow the dress code. He said, “Well, darn, I didn’t get to see anyone who wasn’t.” (Referring to the girls but then he sees them on the deck of the pool, so who’s he kidding? :)</p>

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<p>Jackief - I’m sure your D will do fine - and she’s right - there is a lot to remember for APUSH. I think my D is most worried about her AP Statistics exam. She said she took a look at the study guide, and she feels like it’s nothing like what they’ve been studying all year! Not sure what that’s about, but I’m a little concerned as she’s been doing beautifully in the class all year.</p>

<p>DougBetsy - maybe your S is better off without the review book…lol.</p>

<p>psychmom - Welcome! I think many of us can relate.</p>

<p>mommusic - my D is taking 2 SAT IIs in May, in addition to the 4 APs - seems a little much to me, but that’s how she chose to schedule them.</p>

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<p>mathmom- exactly my point, I wish our school would publish the breakdown, even if it is on a secret profile not the one sent to colleges. I see their point, % getting 3 or higher will definitely be higher than 4 or higher.</p>

<p>D will take SAT IIs in June after APs are over.</p>

<p>welcome psychmom</p>

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<p>jackief - my plan was for D to take her SAT IIs in June as well - but for some reason, she made the decision to take them in May. Whatever - hopefully, she’ll be prepared. She did the SAT II practices for Math 2 and US History and did pretty well, so there’s hope…lol.</p>

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<p>Welcome to all the new posters. :)</p>

<p>YDS-Sorry to hear that your H needed to spend another night in the hospital, but it’s good that they’re keeping close tabs on him. Hope that he continues to recuperate and is able to return home soon.</p>

<p>jackief-Thanks for clarifying the ACT score reporting policy. I noticed that there’s an ACT sitting scheduled for September, should she somehow decide to retake it, and the fall SAT isn’t until October. Of course we’re really hoping that the June SAT retake will make the fall testing dates moot.;)</p>

<p>psychmom–I can relate to your situation; while D is definitely engaged in her college search, H’s approach is basically hands-off.</p>

<p>teenaged_cliche–Thanks for sharing the college reviews. I hear a lot of good things about Macalester and D gets a lot of mail from there, although so far she hasn’t really looked into it.</p>

<p>FAP–Our school also has AP Euro offered during the sophomore year as the main introductory AP class. It’s quite an introduction, given the extensive timeframe covered, and I’m not surprised that some other HSs hold off on it until senior year. However, many of the kids in our school, D included, feel that it really prepared them for how study effectively in their subsequent AP classes and, by comparison, APUSH, this year, doesn’t feel as difficult. BTW, hope the temps cool down a bit in your neck of the woods.</p>

<p>mamagx3–I took D to the CTCL fair when it came to our area last year. She liked it, especially since, as YDS mentioned, they encouraged the parents to stand back and let the students engage with the college reps on their own. (Note: I, along with a few others, did stay back(to D’s appreciation), although according to D, most parents tagged along with their kids anyway. Of the schools that were there, Whitman and Knox really interested her. Since then, though, we’ve figured out that Whitman would be way too much of a bear to travel to and from. Knox is still (tentatively) on D’s radar, although given it’s relatively isolated location her reaction to Kenyon’s campus, I’m not sure if she’ll end up applying there or not.</p>

<p>And speaking of college roadshows, a few weeks back D got a postcard for a program called “Exploring Educational Excellence” featuring Brown, U Chicago, Columbia, Cornell and Rice, that’s coming to our area soon. I wonder if this is related to the other “Exploring Educational…” program…?</p>

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<p>I’m hoping my S does well with the AP Physics C exams (two of them) since they are back to back. This is the first time he’d had two AP exams in one day.</p>

<p>Did anyone else’s kid explain last year’s AP prank (“This is Sparta!”)? Well, there’s one for this year as well but now my S has sworn me to secrecy in case there are any AP graders on CC. I know there are teachers Anyway, my sister found the “This is Sparta” deal so funny that she made him a t-shirt with that theme.</p>

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<p>oh no, an AP prank? Can you at least relate the Sparta story?</p>

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<p>Why so serious? ;)</p>

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<p>I am envious of all of you who have the opportunity to attend these various college road shows. None of them come to our state EVER. I did hear about one – Yale, Brown and MIT coming here in July. Altough I am familiar with at least three of the traveling groups, I had never heard of these three schools traveling together.</p>

<p>I am not looking forward to the next few weeks. Very worried for S’s three AP exams and at two of his three SAT IIs. Can I just be sedated until May 13? :)</p>

<p>YDS, I hope your H will be home soon, and recovering well.</p>

<p>FAP, what was the Sparta prank? I have never heard of an AP prank.</p>

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<p>how can a prank like this be secret if it has to spread on the internet? Parents and AP graders use the internet also (gosh) Anyway, last year the deal was to put that line in the middle of an essay. I don’t think there was a point, other than tagging the essay and spreading the thing. Whatever floats your boat. I’m sure you could find more info over in the AP test prep area.</p>

<p>I think my D2 would like the CTCL presentation, I’ll have to look for it nearby next year when she is a soph.</p>

<p>And yes Exploring Educational… is the other one I attended in addtion to …College Excellence… or whatever they’re called, and also “8 of the best” at least I remember their name The first two we thought were beneficial. The last one as I have said was too many, too long and (not their fault) too far away.</p>

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<p>I think the AP prank regarding “This is Sparta” was more on point with the boys, and especially the ones like my S who happened to be taking AP Euro History that year.</p>

<p>According to the rules, AP graders are not supposed to count anything on the exam that has been crossed out. So the “prank” was to write “This is Sparta!” on the exam, and in some way related to the exam. So if the exam was AP Calculus, the student might embed it in an equation and then cross it out. Apparently some of the ways it was used proved amusing to AP grader groups, who reported this out on the Internet.</p>

<p>My S was particuarly amused since the movie “300” came out last year, which he enjoyed. Also, their AP Euro History class was designing an end of year t-shirt to show they survived their first AP class. They wanted part of the design to include a Spartan warrior with a picture of the teacher on the head of a Spartan’s body but she nixed that idea, much to their chargin, and came up with something they found too benign.</p>

<p>True, jackief, if this year’s prank is being communicated over the Internet, some graders will find out in advance but it won’t spoil it for everyone.</p>

<p>As pranks go, this is pretty tame but I found in an amusing way for some of the bright AP students to let off some steam without hurting anything.</p>

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<p>You know, I feel for families who live in more isolated, rural areas who find it difficult or impossible to attend these college fairs that we more lucky urbanites can just drive an hour or less to attend on a Sunday afternoon.</p>

<p>It’s not fair and yet, purportedly, to create a diverse class, some colleges are looking for bright kids from those places. Any idea why they can’t present a streaming video of the presentation being made in the region, or a downloadable video for those students and parents out in the boonies? They could even set up a conference call number and a time when those in the isolated areas could phone in with their questions. I’ve seen all kinds of ways this can be done and I work in government, which has less money to throw at these tech solutions than private indsutry does.</p>

<p>My problem is figuring out who would be lobbied to make it happen? It doesn’t affect me, but from a fairness aspect, I’d sign such a petition in a NY minute.</p>

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<p>FindAPlace - I agree with you - it would be nice if they could video these presentations and put them on the organizations’ websites. We’re also in the position that the conferences are easily accessible to us - but unfortunately, my D has no time, and probably no inclination, to attend them. There are quite a few coming up in our area in May - but it’s a very tough time for her (heavy sports/music commitments, plus APs and SAT IIs), so I doubt she’ll be able to fit any of the conferences into her schedule. </p>

<p>I’ve never heard of that AP prank, and my D took AP Euro last year as well. Sounds harmless enough.</p>

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<p>I love the idea of the streaming video of the college fairs, and at least a “chat” time to email questions. I can’t imagine that setting up something like that would be too difficult. </p>

<p>A couple of weeks ago, CollegeWeekLive held their online college fair, which is a pretty handy set up. Did anyone else see it? I chatted online with a rep from a school that is on S’s list, who said he would pass on S’s name to our area rep who S met last year at his HS. S and I watched a number of videos of various colleges during that “fair”. It was nice to have another option to get information in a different format from the college websites.</p>

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<p>BengalMom, that’s a shame that the college fair/road shows aren’t at more accessible locations for you. Like FAP mentioned, so many colleges seemed to be looking for prospective students from the less heavily traveled areas of the country. I agree that streaming videos of these road show presentations is a great idea and would probably benefit both the colleges, as well as the prospective students and their families. Perhaps some of the organizations that put on these road shows (such as CTCL) be approached to try this out…?</p>

<p>That’s funny, I’ve never knew about AP pranks before. I’ll have to ask D if she recalls anything like that from the AP Euro test last year.</p>

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<p>I proctored last year and knew all about Sparta from my kids. At one point after one of the exams, I said, “Now, did everyone write “this is SPARTA” on your test book and cross it out?” and they all cracked up. Guess someone as old as I am wasn’t supposed to know! :)</p>

<p>S2 has AP Spanish Lang, AB Calc and Lit the first week, AP Macro and Micro plus two essions of SL Econ the second week, and SL Spanish the third week. SAT-II Lit is on the Saturday before AP exams begin. He is mentally exhausted already. The IB teachers are piling on work before exams begin – and it’s not related to the exams. :(</p>

<p>DH is going to be overseas over Memorial Day, so for the first time in 15 years we won’t be going camping that weekend. I intend to let S2 hang out w/his GF, sleep late and do some SAT practice. That is, unless the IB teachers have other plans. (grr)</p>

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<p>Wow, what’s with the IB teachers? The way it seems to work at our HS for the next few weeks in the AP classes is that the kids are expected to be prepping for the exams, so the level of “new” work decreases. (Our HS doesn’t have IB and the more I read about it, the more I’m glad we don’t.)</p>

<p>I know (because I asked at the Spring Expo at the HS) that the reason why the AP Physics class is not doing as many labs right now, when compared to the honors physics class, is so they can be ready for the AP exam. The teacher is fully prepared to go back and complete the labs in the AP class, once the exam is completed (last day of school is June 19.) Works for me … and hopefully he’ll get good attendance since all but one student in the AP class (my S) is a senior.</p>

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<p>FindAPlace - it’s not like that here at all. Like at CD’s son’s school, they’re really piling on the work now, probably trying to finish the material before the AP exams (don’t forget, NY schools start a little later than everywhere else). I know that her APUSH teacher is giving them some AP prep questions for homework, but that’s in addition to their usual homework. Not sure about the other teachers.</p>

<p>For my D though, the EC schedule is causing her much more stress than worrying about the exams. It’s going to be a crazy end of April through May!</p>

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<p>yes we have lots of work also… Although in APUSH D doesn’t think there is a paper/test scheduled for before the exam, and I offhandedly suggested last night in her stressed state that she might not want to spend as much time finishing ‘Lyndon Johnson’s War’ (she is a slow reader, APUSH takes up a good amount of time nightly) She gave me the most horrified look… I thought she had said earlier that they expected to be done with new material by now, but they are not… I hope there isn’t much left after this, just about 30 years how long can that take?</p>