<p>Very exciting morning here at our house. Checked SAT scores early this morning. YAY!!! Ran into wake up DS… then he ran into tell the Grandparent’s. First time taking them so he is VERY happy with his scores. I’m a little confused, because he has always done really well on the CR in practice tests and PSAT soph year, and where he struggles was math. He ended up getting a better math score than CR. Weird… I guess a lot of people had the same lower CR score. My DS said the CR was VERY dry and boring… so maybe that was it. Anyway, happy because I know he can bring that CR up and then he is set. He wants to retake in May.</p>
<p>Son wanted it “one and done” and it looks like that way. He’d never done a full-length practice, so I didn’t know what to expect. The CR score is a little disappointing, but it should be good enough for any school I hope.</p>
<p>Congrats on the one & dones! I remember seeing a lot of comments on CC after the kids took the Nov test about the CR section being really hard, and now I’m seeing a lot of comments about students surprised at how low their CR scores were. I guess it was just a tough section this time around.</p>
<p>I’ve got to second amtc’s comment re the writing section (take note BUandBC82) - a lot of schools don’t care about the writing score. (They believe they can judge an applicant’s writing better than CB’s 25 minute essay and multiple choice test).</p>
<p>Also, CC will give you a warped view of SAT scores. Look up the percentiles. You will see that our kids are all doing well.(Remember that the percentile for math is a little different for girls and boys. For some schools/programs, women compete with women and men compete with men because the schools want to get “close” to a 50-50 freshman class.)</p>
<p>It is well within the norm to take the SAT more than once - that is why it is recommended that students sit for one exam junior year - plenty of time to address any areas that need work. Also, many kids get a little intimidated the first time they sit for an SAT. There is an anxiety of the unknown that can be distracting. The second time, the kids are more used to it and they just concentrate better.</p>
<p>Yes, congratulations to the one and dones, and to the 'Now we know what to work on"s …it must be great to have that first one under the belt, especially of course if it’s also the last. We are still awaiting PSAT scores so it will be a long time yet until we catch up with you.</p>
<p>Congratulations and condolences on the SAT scores. It always feels better to me to know than to be waiting for answers. </p>
<p>Are other Juniors stressed out? My dd seems really under a lot of stress, and I’m trying to figure out if this is a universal, or just her school. She’ll have basically no work over Thanksgiving, so I’m hoping that she gets to rest and unwind some. And then hop into final projects and exams.</p>
<p>Condor - is there a link to the Peterson’s SAT range that you mentioned. Txs!</p>
<p>“One and done” really depends on what colleges a kid wants to go to. An 800 on CR falls into the middle 50% for Yale. Hard to believe.</p>
<p>chmt2, just google “peterson’s student edge” and you’ll see links. it’s a free registration and then you can run the college search engine. once you “get the results” then click at the SAT mid 50 percent header to sort.</p>
<p>Junior is usually the most intense year when it comes to work, and senior year is most stressful emotionally. D2 is quite stressed out. She is doing wonderfully academically, but her SAT scores just didn’t match up to her grades, so she will need to re-take. We are trying to focus on making it a good family time for her because she will be leaving us soon.</p>
<p>Thanks for the Student Edge info. I like seeing that Mid 50. But now I have to figure out why we only had four schools return 
Thankfully two are on our prelim list.</p>
<p>I am envious that so many of you have test scores (my son postponed his SAT until January) and am very curious as to his PSAT scores that should be released just before Christmas break. From our previous experience, the PSAT and October SAT very closely correlated (for both my girls) so that will give us some way to guage DS’s standing. The CR could be ok or really below par for this kid, depending on the day. Math should be ok. DS is now upstairs playing xbox since today was the last day of school before the holiday. Hoping that his holiday homework load is not horrible, he could use a calm before the storm.</p>
<p>D is not (too) stressed, but she only has two AP’s and I imagine some kids here have 4 or 5. That would certainly stress me out! Her show opens tomorrow night and then a matinee and evening performance Fri-Sun…but her homework is done. Somehow as long as she’s at the theater half the time, she gets through the homework efficiently and well…then, if there’s no rehearsal, she starts to stress. So the fact that there are concerts, shows, competitions all overlapping each other from now through mid-January means she’ll probably be fine. Then a lull, no doubt accompanied by mad nail-biting. SAT in March, I think.</p>
<p>Show opening sounds exciting. Good luck with the show. </p>
<p>My D did well on the SAT. It could be one and done or take it again. If she feels like it later, she may take it again.</p>
<p>Gwen, we just finished two weekends of a play. DS has been catching up on homework this week and sleeping a little more. I am getting dirty looks when I suggest doing ACT prep for the December test date over the break, but I am hoping that he cracks a book anyway.</p>
<p>My son is a little stressed, but for him I think it’s the relentlessness of it all, not so much the difficulty of his course load. He just gets worn down from day after day of having things to keep track of. He tends to be unorganized and procrastinate a lot, and those both get worse when he’s overwhelmed, which of course makes everything more stressful and overwhelming. In fact, that’s the number one thing in my mind about him these days (you know how you always have some certain thing you recognize needs a little extra parenting in each of your kids?). I want to find time to have a talk with him about this. I think he feels like he pampers himself by being careless and lazy (towel on the floor, don’t carry down your laundry, don’t clear your dishes until you’re reminded, chill on facebook for a while before doing homework…), but I want him to see he can pamper himself better by taking care of things so he gets that nice feeling of things running smoothly and being on top of things (and not being reminded to do things, which I’m sure feels like incessant nagging from his mother to him!).</p>
<p>I just need to find a word other than pamper - I don’t think that will click with a teenage boy all that well!</p>
<p>He also gets tired from his sport, which lasts from the beginning of November to early February. He’s always been a kid that needs some serious down time. Even when he was little - he’d be playing hard right along with everyone else, then you’d turn around and he’d be off by himself sucking his thumb and zoning out. So his weekends during sport season are pretty low key.</p>
<p>I don’t think the tests themselves (SAT, ect) stress him out, but the lost weekend morning does!</p>
<p>^^kind of a brilliant analysis, Pinot-- I’m guilty of what you describe myself sometimes! It’s so hard to get out of that cycle of too much to do>exhaustion>disorganization>too much to do. I wonder if you could spend a morning with him, helping him get on top of things in some way he barely notices… hmmm, not sure, but I do know just what you mean.</p>
<p>And thanks Iglooo, 'tis exciting, and fun…I will really miss the hullabaloo of teenage life when she goes off to college!</p>
<p>My son is a pretty calm person and hardly ever seems stressed. I think he does get stressed, but hides it well. He told me he wants to take the SAT again to improve his math score. He thinks he did the best he could on the CR and writing. He is a math kid and expects more from himself on that score. He seemed okay with everything, so I need to chill. </p>
<p>glido - Your right. He is well into the middle 50% of his 3 preferred schools right now. He’ll be fine.</p>
<p>When I talk to my son about school, doing well, and not procrastinating, I try to talk to him about the future and what he wants for himself. Then we talk about what he needs to do to allow himself to have good choices for colleges and careers. I’m trying to make him aware that he is in charge. It’s hard though. He can give me the right answers and then still procrastinate enough to drive me crazy. </p>
<p>PN - Maybe you can refer to “pamper time” as “stress free time” or “me time”.</p>
<p>For D, I try to show her that getting things done in planned way means more free time…if you do xyz on Monday, you can have free time on Wednesday…or whatever. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Occassionally, she actually plans it that way herself, but that’s very rare (and earns a lot of ‘good job’ time comments). She has a huge EC next semester and is adding a class to an already crazy course load, she’s going to have to stop procrastinating. Or we will both go crazy.</p>
<p>Thanks Gwen F - and I’m guilty of it too - that’s why i recognize it in him! </p>
<p>BU & BC (I didn’t see glido’s post) - thanks for reminding me that middle 50% is fine. Somehow I keep thinking his test scores should be above that upper range of the middle 50%, just to give him the best chance for admissions. But really - I’d guess 'bout half the kids are in that middle 50%, right? LOL. </p>
<p>I don’t know if we’ll have a good chance to have a heart to heart over Thanksgiving weekend, but I’ll try to have a sit down with him soon. </p>
<p>In the meantime - I can’t wait to see S1 this weekend! Home from his freshman year at college - woohoo!</p>