<p>PaperChasePop, my daughter is taking the Oct SAT. She’ll start doing a few sections of practice tests each week between now and then. Hopefully the SAT prep will spillover with PSAT benefits.</p>
<p>DS took a SAT prep class last Jan. Besides that and looking over some PSAT books, I don’t think he’s doing much else. We will get him a SAT tutor starting in Sept with the expectation that he will take the SAT in the spring. I guess I think he is a strong student, but not HPY material. Hence, I don’t expect too much in aid other than what a specific college wants to offer him and possibly some financial aid. I don’t think he is NMS material either. He’s probably one level or maybe even 2 below that. So, I don’t think his PSAT score is that critical. He is an A to A minus student, we expect he will get 4 and 5’s on the 6 or 7 APs he’ll take and his score on the SAT I’s will be around 2000. He’s certainly not average, but he is not the typical CC student either. </p>
<p>I’ve learned so much from this site already and I expect to learn tons more before the whole application process is over. I just have to keep reminding myself that my son has a wonderful future ahead of him, even if he isn’t a 2350 SAT kind of kid!</p>
<p>Our daughter is taking English HL (the first of 2 yrs); AP Calc AB; AP USH; AP Biology; AP Psych, Spanish 4H. In the spring she will start Theory of Knowledge. She’s doing the IB rogrm at her high school…and she loves it. She may change her math to Math SL, then take AP Calc AB her senior year. I am not convinced that’s a good idea…
She’s doing some SAT prep now, she won’t have much time when school starts. Of course, she’s also doing bunch of summer assigments for her AP classes.</p>
<p>D is taking:
AP pysch
AP lang
AP bio (double period)
hon physics
span 4
analysis of function
self studying AP gov since she took the course at a local cc this summer.</p>
<p>I too am concerned about lack of free time during the school year. Last year, AP US history took up a lot of time with required work, although she enjoyed the course very much.</p>
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<p>How important is it? Is there any difference between 225 and 235? My kid is not doing anything yet.</p>
<p>My DS is going to be taking: APUSH
AP Env Science
Honors English ( A weighted class, AP Eng is not allowed till<br>
12th grade)
Anatomy/physiology
Alg. II/ trig
Latin 4
Honors Humanities
Dance
Advanced Honors Philosophy of Religion( this is working
above AP level)
Christian Scriptures… has to take.
He will be attending a school called The Mountain School second semester so some of these classes he has to take there. His school and the mountain school designates all classes as honors and limits AP’s to 3 a year. VERY rigorous schools. His only regret is that he was unable to take AP Bio which he was looking forward to, he will take it Senior year instead.</p>
<p>He is studying with a tutor for SAT… scored 219 last year so is just working on the math section, the other 2 sections he scored very high. </p>
<p>He is surprisingly a B student.</p>
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<p>The absolute score is not that important, but making the NMSF cutoff is. The Ivies and most of their peers probably won’t care much about this, but many other schools, including some very good schools, do. Many schools offer substantial scholarships (up to full-rides) to NMF’s. As for the “pre” part, the PSAT score can be used for selecting a list of candidate colleges and to set the target mark for SAT I.</p>
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<p>Depending on where you live, your son could be very close to NMSF strength if he is already at 200 (adjusted from your projected 2000 on SAT I). He is only 21 points from the toughest cutoff state. People do report improvements in this range.</p>
<p>My D is taking an SAT prep class right now and will take her first SAT exam in October along with the PSAT. I think the work she is doing now in the SAT prep class will help with the PSAT. Based on her PSAT score from last year she will not be a NMF.</p>
<p>My schedule:</p>
<p>AP Chemistry
AP Literature
Spanish 3
Symphonic Band
AP US History
Honors Pre-Calc</p>
<p>I wanted to take AP psychology but it interferes with spanish which is not honors. That sucks cause now this other girl will take psychology over spanish and kick me out of the number 1 spot =(</p>
<p>Physics SL (testing)
English HL1
APUSH/Hist HL1 (testing AP)
Spanish HL1
Math HL1
TOK
Math Methods SL (testing)
TA-> AVID (AVID is required at our school)</p>
<p>^Redmen, I’m kind of freaking out too; neither of my math classes are weighted, which is ridiculous.</p>
<p>Thanks PaperChaserPop for the information about the NMSF. We are in NY so I don’t know what the cut off will be, but I don’t think we are in the running. My son took the PSAT last year and didn’t do that well. It was kind of a wake up call that doing the minimum required to get the “A” really wasn’t enough. So he stepped it up a bit at school and he took the SAT class. He was scoring around 1900 there, so we figure with a tutor and a year of maturity he will be around 2000. We hope. </p>
<p>My son is a great kid and he’s smart, just not OMG smart. He does well, but seems to miss the near perfect scores we see here on CC and potential HPY students. That’s really ok as he has other things really going for him. So, I think we need to be one of those “Love thy Safety” families! I don’t think we will be getting tons of merit aid and only a bit of financial aid.</p>
<p>My son’s schedule:
AP US History
AP Chemistry
Honors Physics
Honors Spanish 4
Honors English
Honors Precalc/Trig</p>
<p>We just got back from a trip to New England and my son visited Northeastern while we were in Boston. He really liked it. He visited other Boston schools when his older brother visited two years ago. Northeastern is the only one he is interested in at this time.</p>
<p>D12 is taking:
AP English
AP Chem
AP Latin
AP USH
Hon PreCal
Hon Music
Hon Theology</p>
<p>Will start studying for the SAT in a few weeks and will take an SAT and PSAT in Oct. this is the schedule the counselor recommended. Am a little worried about 4 AP tests in the Spring, so we signed her up for an SAT in October - hopeful that she will do well enough to take some of the pressure off in the spring.</p>
<p>Does anyone know how closely aligned the SAT 2 in chemistry and physics B is to the AP exams? What do you guys think of taking the SAT 2 in May, during the AP exams since they will be already be studying the subjects? My son has to take 5 AP exams next May. I would like to save the June date for a possibly last try on the SAT reasoning for him.</p>
<p>We haven’t had any experience with science SAT II tests but my daughter found the SAT II in world history much more difficult than the AP exam- or maybe she’s just a better essay bs-er than fact memorizer because she scored a 4 on that AP exam as a sophomore and less than 600 on the SAT. There are prep books for the SAT IIs. We did not realize this until we got back daughter’s poor test scores.</p>
<p>My daughter found the Chem SAT II closely aligned with AP Chem. She had conflicts in May/June, so didn’t take the SAT II until the next October. It still worked out okay.</p>
<p>I’ve heard that AP Physics B is closer aligned with the Physics SAT II than Physics C is.</p>
<p>Apollo: that’s sounds like a senior schedule to me…
I don’t know what it will be for sure. My D has a 4x4 which, which means 8 classes, each semester is the equivalent of a year. She signed up for the following, and I’m sure she will get them, its just a question of which term. Hopefully first term will be harder because she plays varsity softball in the spring.</p>
<p>AP Psychology
AP US History
AP Language and Composition
AP Art History (to fulfill the Univ. of Calif. Arts requirement for admission)
Physics (she already took Bio, Chem and AP Chem)
Math Analysis with Trigonometry (she finished Algebra II, and this is the next class)
Advanced Journalism (2 semesters…She is on the school magazine.)
On her own, she is studying AP French because she finished through French IV, and her school does not offer any more. She is doing that on her own time through a non-profit organization because she loves French.</p>
<p>I just saw the comments about the SAT II and the AP Chem. My D also took both the SAT II and the AP Chem.
She thinks she would have done better on the SAT II if she took it in May instead of June. By June, they weren’t doing much in AP Chem… and she forgot alot. But in May, it as all in her head. She passed the AP Chem test, not with flying colors, but she was very pleased. She is not a math/science gal. She is an language, history gal. She also took the W.H. Subject II and AP, and again, did WH Subject exam in June nearly a month after the AP test. She did very well (over a 700) but she got a 5 on the WH AP exam. She thinks she would have done better on the Subject II had she done it in May.</p>
<p>This year, she is taking the US History and English Subject exams in May when she is in the thick of studying for her AP exams.</p>
<p>^^^ You have a smart kid, chrissyblu. It sounds like she got several SAT subject tests in her bag and plans to get more. Do colleges require that many for admissions? I heard that you only need to take 2 or 3 SAT IIs. I hope I’m not misinformed.</p>
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<p>lake42ks, not only are you not uninformed, but the list of colleges that require any SAT IIs is relatively short. if you look at this chart from the Common App website, you can see which schools require them. (Go to this page <a href=“https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/DownloadForms.aspx[/url]”>https://www.commonapp.org/CommonApp/DownloadForms.aspx</a> and click on “Documents and Requirements”) D1 took two and didn’t end up submitting them anywhere.</p>