<p>Thanks. I’m also on the swim team, but it’s basically over most of second semester. I think it can work, I just have to find a way to take Environ Science at a CC.</p>
<p>If you still want to have the option of applying to top colleges in the future, be careful on taking CC classes, especially if your high school is competitive. Adcoms at top colleges may see these CC classes as GPA padding and a way to circumvent the more difficult path through your regular high school curriculum.</p>
<p>Kids are up for PSAT at the end of this school year. I just learned by browsing other thread last night that it could be very helpful for getting in top colleges if done well. Do any parents here have experience on this to share? Do they need to prepare on their own? My S had a SAT 2110 before age of 13. What is the PSAT equivalent? Thanks.</p>
<p>^The PSAT equivalent would be 211 for your son. The rough conversion formula is PSAT*10 = SAT.</p>
<p>Doing well on PSAT does not mean much to elite colleges :(, but fortunately there are many many other decent colleges. A high score from PSAT taken in junior year may qualify your son as a National Merit Finalist, making him very desirable at many other colleges and eligible for substantial scholarships at these schools.</p>
<p>You can search the forum or go to collegeboard.com to find out more about PSAT and the National Merit Scholarships.</p>
<p>My high school mostly sends kids to instate schools. I do know kids who have went to NYU, Emory, etc. I was going to take Environ Science at a CC, because they offer it online but I was going to take French online next year. I can’t take all these classes online, lol!</p>
<p>I am not sure how school rank is determined. My S took GT Spanish last year, but has to take the regular Spanish this year due to schedule conflicts. According to his school rules, GT and AP courses get and extra 1.o and honors courses get 0.5 toward Weighted GPA. If he can get A in either GT or regular course (Spanish in this case), he will loose 1.0 point this year. Does this eventually affect his rank? He has been a straight A student so far. Most likely, he will take the most AP courses in his class. Will AP courses boost his Rank if he takes more APs than anyone else? Of course, I am assuming the perfect scenario that he will get UW GPA of 4.0.</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for your comments/suggestion.</p>
<p>dragonboy - If class rank is what you worry about, then you need to ask the school on how it determines class rank. Not every school uses the same method.</p>
<p>My D is already working past midnight on many nights. This worries me because I know things will only get harder in later years. Does anyone else see this problem?</p>
<p>Our DD was up late last night, but she had a committee meeting that took up about 2 hours of her time early in the evening. Most nights she’s done earlier, it depends on when she starts (usually fairly soon after school) and what else she has going on that day (one major outside EC and a couple of school EC’s). </p>
<p>When is your son starting his homework? Anything you can do to lighten the load? I will, if asked nicely and I have time, print worksheets off the websites, etc. This does save DD some time (especially since we have experienced some internet issues lately). She has been known to take her laptop in the car and type as I drive (Word docs). It does save her time, and she can’t drive anyway. I miss the conversations we have as I drive, but I want her to be able to get some sleep. I am encouraging, with little success, reading ahead in her history class…it would make a big difference on the days when she has a lot of Chem and PreCalc. She reads fast, but heck 20 minutes is 20 minutes!</p>
<p>I wouldn’t be so sure that things will get worse in later years unless you’ve heard from other students/parents that this is true. Different courses and different teachers have a big effect on workload.</p>
<p>We really encourage making good use of time during the day – before school, lunch, waiting for pickup after school, etc. One of my dd’s Spanish books she only has on CD, so she hates to have homework from that book because she has to be at the computer to do it.</p>
<p>Some days are bad, but we haven’t had a midnight day yet.</p>
<p>My dd had issues with her World History reading/note taking early in the semester, but learned that it worked better for her to read the entire chapter, then go back and hit the highlights with her notes. Taking notes as she went ruined the flow and made it take 2-4 times as long.</p>
<p>Are other students staying up as late as yours? </p>
<p>If it’s just your child, you might see if you can figure out what is taking so long. If it’s reading, maybe a speed reading course. If it’s writing essays, maybe encouragement to go ahead and get SOMETHING on paper and then go back and edit. If it’s math (or math-like, like Chem or Physics), maybe some time with a tutor. If the problem is that there’s just so much that your D doesn’t know where to start, then maybe set aside 15 minutes for “homework planning” (you may have to help at first) with planned breaks along the way.</p>
<p>Mom2M & mathinokc, thanks for the suggestions.</p>
<p>I know it will get more difficult because I also have a senior in the same hs. I guess PaperChaserMom and I will need to better understand how DS manages her time. The school gives lots of homework and she is not the only kid in her class who sleeps late. My DD is a slower reader than her older brother. Are there any good material on improving reading speed?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Doesn’t this beautifully illustrate today’s time crunch way of life? What happens to the days when kids can hang out with their friends and neighbors after school and finish their homework in an hour or two?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I have the same question. D2 (HS class of 12) is a much slower reader than D1 (HS class of 09). It hampers her in homework, in-class assignments, standardized tests, and most importantly, has hurt her academic self-confidence. I have searched on-line (CC and elsewhere) and asked her middle and high school English teachers, but I have been unable to find any kind of speed-reading course for HS students. Plenty of reading comprehension courses and advice, but that is not her problem - it is simply speed. Any advice?</p>
<p>Check with your local Parks and Recreation, Community College or high school. Here they are offered as part of the “College for Kids” programs. I have heard good things about the course, but in the interest of full information, DD has never taken one, she’s just always read quickly with reasonably good retention. It’s a great skill to have as the workload increases.</p>
<p>I would ask around, too. I was just talking with a friend, it seems that many of DD’s classmates are behind on their history reading…since DD did not complete hers last night I was glad to know she’s not the only one. She plans on catching up tonight…no committee meetings.</p>
<p>D2 is a fast reader and writer, I think that’s her saving grace. She could write a 5 page paper in a few hours(and get A or higher). Her older sister would work on it for days. But D1 was a lot more organized and efficient in high school, whereas D2 likes to day dream sometimes. When I ask her to clean her room, I would have to check up on her to make sure she hasn’t stopped to read a book she’s just picked up off the floor.</p>
<p>D2 had a lot of problem with math in the middle school. We then found out she was so uncomfortable with basic math (+ -x/) that she was worrying about getting called on to do those simple calculations she wasn’t grasping new concepts in class. We actually bit the bullet and enrolled her to Kumon. It was embarrassing to her, but she started with basic exercise of doing 1+1, 1+2, 1+3…then 2+2, 2+3…3+3, 3+4…She couldn’t move on unless she could do each of those calculations in less than X minutes. The exercise would take 10-15 min a day for her. Each week to went to the center to get tested and get new assignments. In 6 months we saw a huge improvement. She became a lot more confident in class, she wasn’t so worried about being called on. I think they may also have something for reading too. </p>
<p>At our school they tried new math, no memorization (multiplaction table), no mad minute, everything was theoretical. A lot of kids just never learned the basic.</p>
<p>What’s the equivalent of Kumon for reading?</p>
<p>Thanks for reminding me of Kumon, oldfort. My youngest D is still in elementary school and just hasn’t really mastered the basics of addition and subtraction. Now, they’re moving on to more complicated things. i will have to seek out our local Kumon center.</p>
<p>As for speed reading, every summer, we get mailings from our local cc that offers speed reading classes to the community for all ages. Try your cc.</p>
<p>My middle daughter is a very very slow reader. We looked into many things but ultimately, she has improved by just reading more and more. She was reticent to try a speed reading class but I did suggest it. She is now a sophomore in college and doing well, but she does take longer to do reading assignments than other kids.</p>
<p>I think focused reading is more helpful than the old-fashioned speed reading. It’s grasping one paragraph at a time, almost outlining in your head as you read, so you get a full grip on the material. It’s hard for these kids who have read only fiction before, to really take in a big chapter of science or history or, heaven forfend, an original source. My D had a great history teacher last year who really helped them deal with the more dense subject matter. She absorbs a lot more easily now, but I’m not sure its really reading faster.</p>
<p>Well, I just noticed that we have only 13 school days left before the end of the first quarter of my son’s sophomore year. Being here on CC has been both therapeutic and toxic for me. My son has the ambition and intensity of the top CC kids but he really dosen’t have the drive or discipline to match (just read some of my previous posts). The result is a very stressful rollar coaster ride (for me). I am too tuned into my youngest child’s karma. I am working on trying to not internalize his ups and downs and to “separate with love” but it is tough when he routinely misestimates how long it will take him to do an assignment, prep for a test or write a paper…then stays up most of the night to complete the task. He does not yet have the …maturity(?) to balance his intense workload but yet, he says that he is happy. We had a discussion (actually I ambushed him in the car when he was a captive audience…you know 15 yr. old boys) I told him that his way of doing things as I just described is not healthy and that my concerns as a parent are that he be happy, healthy and well adjusted. I don’t care about the grades (he cares about them enough for the entire family). I only care that he does he best. He claims that he is happy and is enjoying the intense workload. He did agree that he needs to manage his weekend time better and anticipate the coming weeks workload so that he can minimize the late night studying. He agreed to curtail the xbox time. </p>
<p>When I peruse these CC threads, I try to stay in the cafe type threads. At this point I don’t know what colleges are going to be a good fit for my son…he is such a work in progress. Good fit will be very key in his case. I am hoping that he is truely learning how manage himself now, in high school and that he is learning what he really wants for himself so that he can next year make a college list of schools that he will be successful at (both academically and socially). My proposed college list for him changes every two weeks!</p>
<p>This probably belongs in the Cafe thread, but this is D2’s mind set for college (or attitude towards me).</p>
<p>Me:“What kind of colleges would you be interested in?”
D2, silence.
Me:“Ok, maybe we could look at Williams, Colgate, Duke…lets come up with a list so we could think about visiting them soon.”</p>
<p>A day later, through some grapevine (D1), I heard D2 complained about how I am controlling and not taking her opinion into consideration.</p>
<p>I tried again.</p>
<p>Me:“So, have you thought about what we talked about the other day? You need to tell me what you want or I am just going to make up a list by myself.”
D2:“I really like writing, I think Yale would be really cool.”
Me (now very enthusiastic), “Well, that’s great. We’ll have that on our list.”</p>
<p>A few days later, through one of our discussions, D2 had an outburst.
D2: “You put too much pressure on me. Do you know how hard it is to get into Yale? What if I don’t get into Yale?”
Ok, who thought of Yale? Not me.
Me:“I know Cornell has a very good writing program. Your sister is very happy there.”
D2: “What, you don’t think I am good enough to get into Yale? I don’t like small schools, no Williams, I heard there is nothing to do there, maybe I want to go to CA. It’s a lot warmer.”</p>
<p>At that point, I just want to shoot myself and hoping she’ll go to CA or some where further.</p>
<p>D2 is a great kid, but just a lot more high strung, very typical artsy type. She got few first tests and papers back last week, there were no surprises, which was a great relief to her(to us too). So far, she is still not stressed over her schoolwork. She is taking hardest courses at her school, but they don’t offer APs in 10th grade.</p>
<p>She wants to join a debate team, but just got selected to be on a science team which would give her a chance to do some research with a college professor. It was a surprise to us because they only selected few kids (we didn’t know she had an interest either). What’s interesting was they called D2 in to ask her if it would cause a conflict with her ballet. Now she is wondering if she’ll have enough time for the debate team.</p>
<p>I think our kids are going to change their minds between now to senior year in terms of what kind of school they want and what focus of study they’ll go into. It’s still to be seen if D2 will develop an interest in science or continue with humanities. The only thing I tell her is to keep up with her grades because that will give her the most options come senior year.</p>